On/Off slider for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode on a new Acer desktop

charley000
charley000 Member Posts: 10

Tinkerer

Hi all. I have been trying to figure out why there is no on/off slider in the settings for a new Acer desktop (model TC-120). After much discussion with Microsoft, Qualcomm (Atheros), Acer, etc., it turns out that Microsoft disables those functions on systems that they don't think are mobile (i.e., desktops).

 

One Microsoft engineer told me that it checks to see if it has a battery. Since there is no battery driver (because there is no battery in a desktop), those sliders are disabled. I think this is stupid as there are times I want to turn off the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

 

I can do it by going to the device manager and disabling the device. But since the support is there for a nice on/off slider (works on my laptops), I think it should be there.

 

I have submitted a feedback request to Microsoft to implement it.

 

Acer could fix this by implementing a dummy battery driver so that Windows 10 would think the system is mobile.

Answers

  • JordanB
    JordanB ACE Posts: 3,729 Pathfinder

    I have acer TC-605 desktop with UPS battery.  There's no bluetooth slider.  Takes three seconds to disable bluetooth or wifi in the device manager (the old fashion way).  Smiley Happy

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • charley000
    charley000 Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    Yes you can do it the old way. But since they have such a nice user interface to turn on/off bluetooth, wi-fi, etc., it's a shame that they don't support it on desktops. The UPS battery doesn't count since Windows doesn't see that. It takes a device driver inside Windows to enable those features.