• Applications integration (Unity mode)
• Upgrade virtual hardware of a VM

If your physical PC supports Bluetooth with an USB Bluetooth adapter or a Bluetooth adapter built-in in your motherboard, you will be able to share Bluetooth devices with the guest OS.
However, be aware that this is only possible by also associating Bluetooth devices with the physical computer.

1. Limited features
2. Share Bluetooth devices of the host PC
3. Outgoing file transfer

1. Limited features

The support for Bluetooth by VMware Workstation and Fusion (the equivalent for Mac) is very limited.

As shown on "Sharing Bluetooth devices with a virtual machine (2005315)" page of the VMware's site, only these devices are supported :

• phones (and smartphones)
• GPS
• SPP (Serial Port Profile) devices
• other Bluetooth devices

VMware Workstation and Fusion also support in a limited way :

• Input Devices (HIDs) : these can be attached to Linux and Mac guest OSs, but not to Windows guests.
• outgoing File Transfer (OBEX File Transfer) only : you can transfer files from a guest OS to a Bluetooth device, but not the other way.

Finally, VMware Workstation and Fusion don't support these types of Bluetooth devices :

• Headsets
• earphones
• audio handsfree kits

In all cases, only outgoing connections (virtual machine to Bluetooth device) are supported.

2. Share Bluetooth devices of the host PC

If the drivers for your host PC (including Chipset and Bluetooth) are installed correctly, you should find Bluetooth devices in the Device Manager -> Bluetooth Radios :

• Bluetooth USB module
• Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator

Once Bluetooth is installed on the host PC, you must configure the virtual machine settings to share Bluetooth devices of the host PC.
To do this, select the desired virtual machine and click on : Edit virtual machine settings.

In the "USB Controller" section, check the "Share Bluetooth devices with the virtual machine" box.

Start the virtual machine and you will see the Bluetooth icon in the Windows tray system.

In the guest OS device manager, you will also see a Bluetooth section with these devices :

• Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator
• Generic Bluetooth Adapter

Make sure Bluetooth is enabled on the Bluetooth device you want to pair and that it is visible :

Right click on the Bluetooth icon of the tray system and click on : Add a Bluetooth Device.

Given the various restrictions indicated by VMware, we chose to pair our Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone to test the outgoing file transfer (OBEX File Transfer).
Click on the Bluetooth device to pair, then click on the "Pair" button that will appear.

Windows 10 will tell you a PIN code to indicate on the phone, however, with our smartphone, we didn't need this information.

On your host PC, you will receive a notification :

Plain Text

A Bluetooth device is trying to connect.
Click to give your permission.

Then, on your smartphone, you will receive a request for Bluetooth device.
Accept it by pressing OK.

A window for adding a Bluetooth device will appear on the host PC.
Select "Yes" and click Next to allow this connection.

Then, various Bluetooth services will be configured.

And a set of Bluetooth drivers will be installed automatically.
Note that these drivers may vary from one Bluetooth device to another.

After the drivers are installed and the Bluetooth services are configured, the "This device has been added to this computer" message will be displayed.

A Bluetooth device management window will appear on the host PC.

And the Bluetooth device will also appear with the status "Connected" in the guest OS.