Boot Camp, Windows 7, and Bluetooth Wireless Mouse and Keyboard, Oh My!
Following my recent purchase of a new 24″ iMac, I eagerly set up all my apps and settings to my liking, and was disappointed in the lack of up to date support for setting up Windows 7 with Boot Camp. The process, which turned out great in the end, would have been much easier if I had known a few things first.
Snow Leopard
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard comes with Boot Camp 3.0 which, even though it doesn’t say it anywhere (had me worried at first), supports Windows 7. Sort of anyway. It would have saved me about an hour if I had known that Boot Camp 3.0 does not support 64-Bit Windows 7. I am not sure if this limitation is specific to any specific models, but it did not work on my brand new iMac (purchased September 2009). It would pay to do some research if you really want to install the 64-Bit version. So, after installing Windows 7 64-Bit, I inserted the Snow Leopard install disc to install the Windows Boot Camp and realized I had to start all over with the 32-bit.
Apple Wireless Bluetooth Mouse & Keyboard
After a successful installation of Windows 7, I was displeased to have to plug in my Logitech G15 keyboard in order to set up my Apple Bluetooth Wireless Mouse & Keyboard. I headed straight for the Control Panel to add my devices. Instinctively, I double clicked my devices in the list of available Bluetooth Devices and waited for it to activate. “This is taking a while”, I thought. Don’t be fooled, that spinning wheel will keep going until you hit cancel. It won’t work. Read on.
It was difficult to weed out the following information from forum posts that were severely outdated. At first you will be disappointed when trying to get your mouse and keyboard to work but don’t worry, the following images will help you activate the necessary Bluetooth Services for your devices. Here are the plain and simple steps:
- In the Windows 7 task bar tray (bottom right), you’ll find the Bluetooth icon. Select Add Device.
- From the Add Device dialog box, right click on your device’s icon and select Properties. If your device isn’t listed, try turning it off and on or just mash the keypad or click a few times.
- From the Properties dialog, in the Services tab, you should see a checkbox item for “Drivers for keyboard, mice, etc (HID)” under Bluetooth Services. If it doesn’t show up, you probably already have a similar device connected. Check the checkbox and click Apply.
No Wires
That’s it. If your setup is an iMac like mine, you’ll be comfortably and completely wireless once again! Isn’t it great that Apple can even do Windows better than Microsoft? 
Update: 11/3/2009 – If you have a brand new iMac (21.5-inch or 27-inch models), make sure you have the Bluetooth 1.0 Update for Windows. It probably updates through Apple Software Update, but it could be worth your time to double check.
September 19th, 2009 on 11:32 pm
Dude, Thank you so much for this message! It really helped me set up my mighty mouse with window’s 7…like it was so cool that your problem was exactly mine! Thanks again bro.
David
September 19th, 2009 on 11:53 pm
@David I’m glad you found it useful
Thanks for the comment!
September 24th, 2009 on 9:27 am
aight, thx a lot, bro! same problem with MBP… was waiting several times for the spinnin’ wheel to stop… and already wondering: WHY?!
thank you!
September 26th, 2009 on 3:54 pm
Thanks very much, had to use Logitech mice until i found this website!
Thanks!
October 22nd, 2009 on 1:56 pm
Thanks man, this will be very helpful…. i did the same thing last night with 64bit on my iMac… head ache! unfortunately i only have the bluetooth set up so i need to figure out a way to get these connected without buying a secondary setup
October 22nd, 2009 on 2:08 pm
@Garrett Thanks for the comment. I’ve found that the bluetooth in windows 7 can be a major pain. Sometimes at the login screen the bluetooth won’t connect and there is nothing you can do but plug in a wired peripheral. Sometimes it requires resetting the bluetooth peripheral completely (unpairing the device and setting it up again) and then it can cause problems when you switch back to OSX. It’s probably more trouble than it’s worth, but I need to be wireless… can’t stand the clutter of cords on my desk!!
October 24th, 2009 on 5:54 am
This solved my problem, many thanks. I installed the x64 version of Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro, which I bought about six months ago, using Boot Camp, without any problems – apart from the mighty mouse. I had also installed Snow Leopard.
November 12th, 2009 on 2:42 pm
Andrew this solved my problem with Apple wireless mouse & keyboard as well. Thank you very much. I am using SL on my iMac and Boot Camp with Window 7. Works great.
Andrew W
December 12th, 2009 on 4:28 am
You could’ve used your 64 bit version. You just wouldn’t have had the Boot Camp features (Volume/eject pop up, Boot Camp control panel, etc.) It’s no different than installing Windows on a regular PC.
December 17th, 2009 on 6:33 am
You are a god of sorts
December 26th, 2009 on 1:30 pm
I have a problem, I have but I haven’t at the same time bluetooth.
I installed W7 64bit in my 24″ iMac (no BootCamp), and I saw that I have BT with generic drivers, I installed the Apple BT drivers and I still haven’t the BT tray icon so I can’t search/find the keyboard and mouse…
I tried to install BootCamp and It’s all ok (It’s supposed that BootCamp not offers support for W7 but it works), and I’m exactly in the same point.
This thing is driving me crazy, plz help.
Sorry por my english, I’m a little asleep and I’m spaniard
January 1st, 2010 on 2:18 am
I’ve tried to install a Windows bluetooth kbd & mouse (Rocketfish). Work fine on the Mac part of boot camp (new 23″ iMac) but I can’t get it to select either the Mac or Win 7 partition. Which key is the equivalent of the “option” key on a Mac keyboard? I’ve tried control, alt, control-alt, the Windows logo key, and pretty much every other combination I can think of, and it still boots right into Win without presenting the choice.
Also, when I am in the Win side, it will not install the custom drivers. The native Win drivers work fine EXCEPT THE SHIFT KEY!!!! Fortunately, I only write poetry in the cummings style, so it is not much of a problem.
But, the question of equivalency between the option key on a Mac keyboard and the alt key on a Windows keyboard remains a sticky issue. Does anyone know the reality of what signal is sent????
April 8th, 2010 on 4:22 pm
Fenix my man, you rock !
Merci beaucoup, thank you for sharing this great tip
cheers
Yome
April 26th, 2010 on 5:05 pm
Thank you so much. I could not find it myself, that i can right click on the mouse icon in Found software list to put that checkmark.
Great!!!