This tool has been superceeded by powerBTremover
So stop reading and go there!
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OK, read on if you're curious, but if you just want to fix your Bluetooth problems, go to the powershell script mentioned above...
Unpair and remove your Bluetooth device from Windows 10, even when the standard Windows 10 methods won't work or when the device keeps coming back on it's own.
If you want the long, boring story, scroll to the end. Basically, if your Windows 10 is having trouble removing a bluetooth device (eg. fails, or pretends to remove but then does not re-pair and the old "zombie" pairing comes back after restart, etc); then this little piece of code may actually resolve your problem.
Well, before anything, if you just want to run the tool you can download it from my Dropbox here. But you should never just trust random EXE's that you download from the web, so here's how you can build it yourself:
- You will need a C# IDE like Visual Studio or SharpDevelop - this is what I used because of the portability (no need to install, just copy the folder and run the exe) and no admin rights required, they call the portable version "Xcopyable Installation" and can be downloaded from SourceForge
- Create a new C# command-line application project (call it
btRemoverto make your life easier when pasting) - Put the source code (
Program.cs) in it (make sure namespace & main class names match, right...) - Build the solution, then go to the output folder and call the command-line tool passing in the stubborn device's bluetooth address.
Q: But where do I get the device's address?
A: Windows -> Device Manager -> Bluetooth -> right-click your device -> properties -> details -> select "Bluetooth device address" Screenshot:
Q: Why didn't you make the program list the devices to make it easier?
A: Laziness - I actually looked into it for a few minutes, but it wasn't so clear right away so I didn't think it was worth it to invest any effort into doing this, since this tool is only required ONCE and in quite rare cases.
And there you go.
Some people (actually seems to be quite a lot of people but most importantly: me) are having trouble removing Bluetooth devices from Windows 10 sometimes. There doesn't seem to be a common cause and it seems to be quite random, very difficult to replicate on purpose. See more on this Microsoft Community post
The first time that this happened to me, I formatted the PC; I keep all my "user folders" (eg. desktop, etc) on an online storage service (like OneDrive, but I actually use another) and I use a few different online services for my work; I try to keep my digital life as "portable" as possible so that I don't get stuck on a single PC. So this was an easy solution.
The second time this happened, I saved my stuff and was about to go to another PC to continue working while this one was formatted and I thought; "wait, I remember on that Microsoft post that someone mentioned some command-line tools that could resolve this", the problem seems to be quite common with my configuration (Microsoft Surface Go (windows-store-only-or-something-mode disabled/removed) + Microsoft Sculpt Mouse) so that just sounded like a better solution.
I visited the site that had the command-line tools and... it has loads of low-quality ads everywhere, popups and pop-unders. Really horrible and iffy-looking, but OK, the devs of this tool are free to try and make their site as profitable as possible, maybe... whatever; let me check the tools and.... wait a sec... the tools HAVE to be installed, they cannot be extracted from a zip and the installation REQUIRES admin rights.... fishy fishy fishy. I'm not downloading that, thank you very much. My PC's virus-free, just the way I like it.
So I closed the fishy site (don't get me wrong, it might be completely legitimate and honest and virus-free; but it smells just too bad so I won't go near it) and proceeded to the original idea of going back to format/restore windows, whatever...
Then I thought.... wait, I know C++, it might just not be all that hard to create a little program that does whatever this supposed tool does; let me look into this. But I have a nice & easy, portable C# IDE on my Sync drive so let's see if C# could do it, so I found this Stack Overflow post which mentions a simple call to the function BluetoothRemoveDevice in the windows standard bluetooth dll...
That seemed to be just too simple and most likely what the windows screen does, so I thought this won't work for sure, but let's start from here.
well, it worked so here's the full code and usage instructions for anyone to use.