I've yet to come across a more drastic failure by a technology company than this. Period. Beyond frustrating.
What's "beyond frustrating" is actually the Bluetooth part, not the Windows part. The Windows part is drop-dead easy.
This is the Windows part: Your PC either shipped with a Bluetooth adapter (i.e., installed by the factory) or it did not. If it did not, you can buy a Bluetooth adapter (aka Bluetooth dongle) and plug it into a USB port on the computer.
If your PC shipped with a Bluetooth adapter, the manufacturer installed the driver at the factory. If you bought an adapter, the driver either came in the box or (more likely) you downloaded it from the manufacturer's website and installed it yourself.
Now, all you have to do is to go into the Settings app and turn the Bluetooth adapter on. Ta da, you're done. Presuming that you're not the type who messes around in Device Manager, the Windows registry or other internal settings, you've done everything you need to do to get Bluetooth up and running on Windows. That was easy!
Now we come to the frustrating part: dealing with the Bluetooth technology, which is completely separate from Windows. Here's where you need to deal with pairing and connecting, master and slave, multi-point and choosing profiles. And if you think that all Bluetooth headphones or earbuds or keyboards, etc. work the same way ... guess what? You'll need to do a lot of hit and miss and phone calls to the Bluetooth device's manufacturer before you finally get your device to work properly and reliably.
It shouldn't be that hard. But to make everything easier, competing hardware manufacturers would have to actually cooperate to synchronize their technologies. Like that's gonna happen. Do you remember the frustration that came with burning CDs years ago? Bluetooth is not any better.
Bluetooth devices can work great, but to get there you have to come up with the proper settings and sequences of how you use the devices and then do not change a thing - nothing.
Thank you for posting your response because I agree. Most people who think this is easy or who write the tech articles that are so dumb have one computer, that was probably expensive, and it came equipped with every bell and whistle that was available. Some people are here because they repair computers, or they are like me and rebuild and resell computers. I work on about 5-10 computers per week. The most difficult part of all of the work I do is to equip a computer with Bluetooth. I am working on a Compaq Presario CQ57-339WM right now. I've installed 25-30 network cards, that are equipped with Bluetooth reloaded Windows 10 about 5 times, downloaded every driver I can imagine, and I've put in external Bluetooth USB devices to no avail. I'm also working on a Toshiba and an HP that all have the same problem. I've gone to the Device Manager and selected View > Show Hidden Devices. Most of the time, and all three of these, it isn't even showing that Bluetooth exists, is hidden, or is possible. I'm really of the opinion that Microsoft wants you to purchase a new Microsoft Surface and has shut some of your features off on purpose and slowed your computer down. Like some of the previous posts, I'm a Linux user (I prefer Linux-Mint - try it because it is amazing!). Microsoft couldn't possibly give me any viable answer other than fraud committed to slow down older PC's more than new ones sold by them, as a response to why older computers "are not supported" or that certain features won't work and that the computer might have the same speed CPU, more memory, and is setup without all of the bloat yet it runs slower than someone's new Microsoft Surface. I don't want a Surface. My business is to provide people who live on a budget with a computer that works well and is around $200. The computer manufacturers are raking it in on selling computers that should cost that amount, but instead cost $1000. But my point is, there isn't a "simply go to this menu and select this icon" answer to activate Bluetooth. This is the biggest pain in the neck and I normally would never write a post to a community board, but I'm inclined to do so since Microsoft does nothing and has done nothing to address the issue. Instead they just recommend buying one of their computers. This is also very true for HP, ASUS, and Acer from my experience. If you follow the troubleshooting guide, which you would have to have the lowest IQ ever and need to be fed to get any answer that helps, they always lead to purchasing a NEW COMPUTER! I understand that they are in business to sell more, but how about fixing what is wrong with what they've sold before they get their customers to purchase more. That's like the fat kid going back for another plate at the buffet before he finished on the one he has.