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Today I Learned @lemmy.world

Wispy2891 @lemmy.world

6d ago

TIL Microsoft had to patch the Bluetooth stack on Windows because they didn't test their own Bluetooth mouse on it

devblogs.microsoft.com

Why is the name of the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000 hard-coded into the Bluetooth drivers? - The Old New Thing

They wanted the mouse to have a name like "Microsoft® Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000" but they accidentally used the wrong encoding and the name was invalid. Because they already made thousands of devices without properly testing them, the "obvious" solution was to patch the Bluetooth stack on every single computer in the world to fix this issue. It's the only Bluetooth device released in computer history that requires this.

Technology @lemmy.world

Pro @programming.dev

4d ago

Why is the name of the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000 hard-coded into the Bluetooth drivers?

devblogs.microsoft.com /oldnewthing/20250915-00/

Technology @programming.dev

Pro @programming.dev

4d ago

Why is the name of the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000 hard-coded into the Bluetooth drivers?

devblogs.microsoft.com /oldnewthing/20250915-00/

29 comments

Leave it to Microsoft to give a mouse a five-word brand name.
- Probably had a whiteboard and every executive in the room had to go up and add a word lol
  
  First guy goes up, writes Microsoft®
  "Fuck I was going to write that. Hope nobody writes mou.. FUCK"
- I can't wait for the new copilot mouse to come out!
  
  Wait no further!
  
  I'm hoping for a 5 button trackball named "Microsoft 365"
- There was 7999 before it as well
Lots of drivers are doing things like this I bet. It’s much easier to fix software than hardware.
- I remember when one of the Guitar Hero games was first released for Xbox, they soon had a big problem where lots of guitar peripherals were behaving strangely. I think in the end the whammy bar wasn’t always going to what the sensor read as 100 or 0 or something like that because of weak springs or poor physical fit with the plastic, and in the end the fix was basically to adjust how the values were read in software.
- Unlikely to be the case for mice, though, since lots of mice use the same drivers. As far as I'm aware, there's just a handful of popular chipsets, which implement the logic, so you just need a handful of drivers.
  This is particularly apparent on Linux, where most drivers are built into the kernel. You can take virtually any mouse and use it on Linux without installing drivers (although you might still want a separate program to setup LEDs or DPI profiles or whatever).
  And yeah, you don't want to have to get a patch into the Linux kernel to fix random spelling mistakes or similar...
Out of all major operating systems, somehow Windows handles Bluetooth the absolute worst. From my experience:
Android: 99.9% reliability
iOS: 99.9% reliability but a pain to toggle
MacOS: Not really sure but probably near iOS/Android
Ubuntu: 97% reliability
Random Linux distro: 20% reliability
Windows: 5% reliability. Yes, that's really my success rate at connecting Bluetooth headphones to Windows 11.
It's atrocious that Microsoft focuses more on ads in the OS rather than fixing their Bluetooth.
I’ve got a lot of time for Microsoft hardware. I remember around 2000 when if you wanted a mouse or keyboard you basically had to buy whatever abomination Logitech was flogging at the time. Then Microsoft came along and started making stuff that was actually a little sexy.
- microsoft sidewinder x4 was a great keyboard. Too bad they stopped making them.
  
  I still have my X6, with the modular numpad you could stick to either side.
  Although nowadays I only use it for my test bench at home. That thing was truly ahead of its time.
- It was Synaptics that introduced competition to Logitech.
  
  My kid just had an issue with his Logitech wireless mouse right clicking with both buttons!
  I looked in settings and then I used the mouse on Linux and windows and got the same effect. It turns out Logitech mice use piece of shit button switches.
  But no problem I fixed the problem in like 5 minutes once I knew what the problem was. I gave my kid a wired mouse temporarily. Then I went to Amazon and searched for wireless mice. No more Logitech for me thanks.
- Like this https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EOhVKW_UUAATi4K.jpg:large
  Best keyboard I ever had. Well, top 3.
- I had a Microsoft mousr in the 90's (9 pin serial, ball), that frankly was better than any other mouse at the time.
- The WMO was the pinnacle of gaming mouses at the time and it was just an ugly office mouse everyone had around.
  I still have one because it was so coveted and they stopped producing/providing it.
- I think I read somewhere that they were one of the top Linux contributors back then because of all the device drivers they supplied.
I bet that same workaround is probably implemented in Linux as well.
- Linux would probably handle it gracefully.
  
  Wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't check the UTF-8 validity at all and just lets the apps get broken UTF-8 where most of the time nothing horrible happens. That or they just strip invalid characters.

29 comments