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ActiveSync with Bluetooth and Windows XP SP2

Windows XP Service Pack 2 introduced Microsoft built-in drivers for Bluetooth. This makes synchronising over Bluetooth very easy to setup, and this section will guide you through it.

Microsoft dropped synchronising over wireless network connections in ActiveSync 4.0, so if you are using a Windows Mobile 5.0 or higher device (which require AS 4.x or higher), then Bluetooth is the best way of synchronising wirelessly with your computer. Using Bluetooth has a number of advantages over using Infrared synchronisation the main one being that it does not require a line of sight throughout the process (i.e. you don't have hold the device pointing at the Infrared port on your computer or clear some space to do so). Bluetooth sync is also quicker than Infrared. 

If you want to sync over the air to a Microsoft Exchange server, then you should look here instead.

Requirements

You will need

• Windows Mobile device with Bluetooth
• Computer with
  • Bluetooth module
  • Windows XP SP2
  • Microsoft ActiveSync 3.7.1 or higher

The new Microsoft supplied drivers should be installed. If the screenshots below do not look like your screens then you don't have the native drivers installed or activated.

Installing or Activating the Microsoft Drivers

1. Install Windows XP SP2 or higher
2. Remove your existing drivers using Add/Remove Programs.
3. Reboot
4. Windows XP should detect the Bluetooth module and install a number of components automatically via Plug and Play.

Setting up ActiveSync to Use Bluetooth

This is a three stage process

1. Pair the devices
2. Configure ActiveSync on the PC
3. Configure ActiveSync on the Windows Mobile.

As these guides are very heavy on screenshots, they have been split up in to separate pages

1. Pair your PDA to Windows XP: Windows Mobile 2002 - Pair a Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows Mobile 6
2. Configure ActiveSync for use with Bluetooth: Windows Mobile 2002 - Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows Mobile 6