The Joys and Sorrows of Bluetooth LE (BLE) with Windows

This is a summary of  how to use Bluetooth LE, also known as Bluetooth Smart or Bluetooth 4.* (4.0, 4.2) in Windows software development.


It contains explanation and critique of the Bluetooth LE API and lots of open questions to the Bluetooth LE development team at Microsoft (who will probably never read this, but anyway...)


The focus is on C# and the Bluetooth LE C# API available since Windows 10.0.10240.0 for Universal Windows (UWP) apps.


I will describe the journey to get BLE to work on a remote Windows 10 computer in 2016, will give some code examples of how to use the API, what worked and what didn't.


Bluetooth LE has been available since Windows 8 in the C++ Bluetooth LE API, but in Windows 10, a  C# API has been added to the .Net Core library and gives developers of Windows Store apps access to Bluetooth LE capabilities under the Windows.Devices.Bluetooth.* namespaces.