Windows Phone Thoughts: Talking Free, Wirelessly: Hacking the Registry to Use a Bluetooth Headset

Pocket PCs and Bluetooth headsets do not have a symbiotic relationship. Most Pocket PCs are not intended to work with a headset, so most people assume that it can't be done. Fortunately for us, most people are wrong.

A company called Widcomm provides the Bluetooth radio stack for the majority of Pocket PCs, and rather than making separate stacks available for each different device on their client list, Widcomm allows functionality to be flipped on and off via registry settings. This means that most Pocket PCs using the Widcomm stack can be made to work with a Bluetooth headset, provided that the headset supports the correct profile. It’s not exactly easy, but it’s not brain surgery either.

The first article in this series was a review of a Bluetooth headset, the Tekram-312. In this article, I’ll show you how to get your headset working with your Bluetooth-enabled Pocket PC. This has a variety of applications, not least of which is usage with PocketSkype – the subject of the next article in this series.

Read on for the juicy details!