How Windows 7 handles Bluetooth - Not My Idea.

I have a few bluetooth headsets as well as a couple of bluetooth stereo headphones that double as telephony headsets. My experience on Windows 7 has been way south of awesome, and I have a screen cast to prove it :)

 Until I put Windows 7 on my netbook and laptop, I could enjoy the same switch from enjoying Netflix audio in bluetooth stereo to making a Skype call with ease. Today - I'm lucky if I can close bluetooth device configuration window in Windows 7 without losing audio altogether in the bluetooth headset - only to find it blaring loudly through my laptop speakers.

Since I use noise reduction headphones, when this happens, it isn't immediately obvious to me that my family or my co-workers are suffering from an auditory onslaught of whatever form of audio might have my attention at the moment.

Bluetooth in general has been a failure of implementation in a number of dual use cases, but connecting to a single device at a time, say a laptop, netbook running Windows XP or Ubuntu (or even an iOS device) led to, if not an enjoyable experience, at least a convenient, functional, reliable experience whilst switching from media mode to telephony mode and back again.

I wish the same were true for Windows 7. I did a quick screen cast of just one of the many ways in which Windows 7 completely flakes out on bluetooth. [One day I'll get the pro version of Jing so that I can upload to YouTube and embed videos directly into my blog posts. The link to my screen cast: http://screencast.com/t/3Z9QZkfgKQ ]

Super shame too - because all in all, I have been digging Windows 7 as an end user.

As an IT support professional, I have some use cases that illustrate how Windows 7 makes everyday routine support tasks a for more clicks than is necessary in XP - but I'll save those for another blog post. It maybe that I just haven't spent enough time RTFM.