Apple Wireless Keyboard + Windows = Happy

After using the Apple Wireless Keyboard at the local Apple store, I was hooked. It doesn’t seem to have any lag, the key action is awesome and I really like the lack of cords. The only thing is, I generally work on a Windows XP box, not an Apple machine. So, I did some research and it seemed like the things generally work with XP, though some folks have reported problems. Here’s what I found:

• If you don’t have built-in bluetooth support, pick up a D-Link DBT-120, the same adapter Apple recommends for Macs without built-in bluetooth support
• If you’re running SP2 on Windows XP, do not install the Widcomm drivers that come with the adapter. Just plug it in and let Windows use the generic drivers instead. If you use the drivers that ship with the adapter, you’ll have to re-pair the keyboard every time you reboot. Somehow, the pairing info gets corrupted on reboot, so you can’t use the keyboard to login… If you use the generic Microsoft driver, things just work with the keyboard, or at least they did for me. You can’t use some of the cooler Bluetooth profiles, like Audio Gateway, but then I really just want a keyboard that works all the time, so I don’t care.

So, that’s the trick. The crappy Microsoft Bluetooth support is just enough to get me by and I’m quite happy with this little keyboard. Now if I can just find a way to remap the F14-F16 and volume keys to something more useful…