Automatically connect my laptop to the internet via Bluetooth

Question

I often tether my laptop through my iPhone to go online when I'm out and about.

Right now I do this manually by looking at the list of available Bluetooth devices and choosing "connect using access point" from the menu bar.

Is there a way to automate this so that my laptop just connects to the phone automatically if there's no regular WiFi present? If it can't be made fully automatic, I'll happily take a script or something similar that at least makes it easier.

Answer 1

You can bind Win-B to tether Bluetooth.

1. As suggested by Techie007 you can create a shortcut by going to "Devices and Printers" right-clicking the phone and selecting "Create shortcut".
2. Put the shortcut in a directory like "C:\Windows\BluetoothLink" by itself
3. Install Autohotkey
4. Right click on the Desktop, and choose "New" -> "AutohotkeyScript"

5. Enter the following:

   #NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
   SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
   
   #B::
       SetKeyDelay, 200
       Run, C:\Windows\BluetoothLink
       Sleep, 300
       Send, {Down}
       Sleep, 200
       Send, {AppsKey}
       Sleep, 550
       Send, {Down}
       Send, {Down}
       Send, {Right}
       Send, {Enter}
   

6. Save the Autohotkey script (e.g. Ctrl-S)

7. Double click the Autohotkey script to run it
8. Press Win-B, test that it works
9. Open your startup directory (e.g. press Win-R and type "shell:startup")
10. Make a shortcut to the Autohotkey script (so that it works even after reboot).

One could perhaps make this fully automatic by scheduling a task on resume but I am not sure I would recommend fully automatic Autohotkey scripts stealing control of your keyboard from you. They tend to be a bit fiddly even when run manually.

Answer 2

If you are willing to go the scripting route, then your best bet would be to write something in Windows PowerShell. PowerShell features a powerful scripting language, with numerous cmdlets to allow access to nearly every feature of the OS.

Unfortunately, the script would be highly dependent on the drivers of your wireless card, NIC, and bluetooth card, so there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.

You'd probably need to first query the status of the wireless network (this thread includes a lot of information on this).

Now, this article might be useful to you for controlling your Bluetooth adapter, but you may be forced to interface with the adapter at the driver level since no standard API exists (outside of Winsock).