Microsoft officially released the Windows 10 November 2019 Update on November 10. Not everyone can install the operating system's latest major update, however, with Microsoft saying that the company is holding back the release from systems running an outdated Bluetooth driver from Realtek.
Microsoft told users on Friday that "To safeguard your update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on devices with affected driver versions for Realtek Bluetooth radios from installing Windows 10, version 1909 or Windows 10, version 1903 until the driver has been updated." Read: update the driver or miss out.
That means the Windows 10 November 2019 Update requires Realtek Bluetooth driver version 1.5.1012 or newer. Some people will be able to find the driver by using Windows Update and installing the recommended, well, update. But anyone who can't find the new driver there must contend with a more convoluted process.
What to Do
Here are the steps those poor souls must follow, according to Microsoft:
- Download both of the Realtek Bluetooth radio drivers to your preferred folder: Driver 1, Driver 2. Note We recommend downloading them to your Documents folder.
- Open File Explorer. If there is no file explorer icon in the task bar, select the search box and enter file explorer and select it.
- Within File Explorer, go the the Documents folder or the folder you downloaded the drivers to.
- Find and double click or double tap on the file named 068de0d6-6ac2-473a -8cbd-bd449cd5c97c 942eec5828662eecc6b98 cc2706658bf2433717c.cab
- Select CTRL+a on the keyboard. This should select all of the files
- Right click or long press on any of the files and select Extract.
- Select the New folder button and rename it Realtek Bluetooth.
- Select the Extract button.
- In File Explorer, select the back button to go to the location you downloaded the drivers into.
- Find and double click or double tap on the file named f2748416-7753-49c6 -9185-56f4986f490b e98e0d664b7e874011b8 e3752046ca61f3475295.cab
- Select CTRL+a on the keyboard. This should select all of the files
- Right click or long press on any of the files and select Extract.
- If you are in the folder named Realtek Bluetooth, then select the New folder button and type Realtek Bluetooth 2.
- Select the Extract button.
- In the search box on the taskbar, enter device manager, then select Device Manager.
- Find Bluetooth and expand it.
- Find the Realtek device and right-click or long press on it.
- Select Update Driver from the context menu.
- Select the Browse my computer for driver software button.
- It should default to your Documents folder, if this is where you saved the drivers then just select the Nextbutton. If you did not save the drivers to your Documents folder, select the Browse button and find the folder you downloaded the drivers to and select OK.
- It should now find the updated drivers and install them. Wait for this to complete and select Close.
While these compatibility updates can be frustrating, it makes more sense for Microsoft to hold back the Windows 10 November 2019 Update from certain systems than to field complaints from consumers who don't understand why installing the latest version of Windows 10 caused problems with their PCs.
