Remove Bluetooth Support - Microsoft Windows XP SP2
- 2
- Add a Comment
In my other life as a tech. writer for a newspaper, I receive many different inquires about different subjects, including this recent email question. The basic of the question is for a user who is using Microsoft Windows XP w/ SP2 who wants to turn off Bluetooth support. Why? Because they don’t use it and have been advised that it could potentially be a security hazard. Without getting into the security issues, I took a look over at the KB articles for Microsoft and found this article:
To remove Bluetooth wireless device support, follow these steps:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This will prevent the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack from loading. However, this does not prevent third-party Bluetooth stacks from being installed or loaded.
I am not sure if this applies to SP3, but my gut feeling is that it should, but I haven’t tried it. Have you? If you have please share your expertise with us.
Comments welcome.
2 Comments
Aryeh Goretsky
August 27th, 2008
at 12:10am
Hello,
My notebook computer, a Lenovo ThinkPad T61p, has a dedicated hardware switch to disable the various radios inside. I am guessing, though, that your reader does not have a similar feature on the notebook.
If they are really concerned about the potential for a Bluetooh security incident, wouldn’t it be more secure to remove the Bluetooth radio module from the computer?
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
Ron Schenone
August 27th, 2008
at 5:34am
Hi Aryeh,
Thanks for the suggestion.
Regards, Ron