Dongle not being recognized by Windows 10?

[Newbell]

I bought the Steam controller last month for black friday, I get it now, but when I connect the USB bluetooth dongle, windows 10 is not recognizing it. Is it normal?

[ShelLuser]

How did you come to that conclusion? Also: why do you think this matters?

Note that it's not really a bluetooth dongle, ergo Windows 10 won't pick it up as if it is one. Definitely not as something you can use as a Bluetooth device yourself.

[Vepar]

Does the controller work or not? Windows doesn't always show it's connected nor does install anything.

Have Steam running, then plug in the dongle for the first time and powe up the controller.

[Newbell]

Yes, it works. But if I have another controller I need to have two dongles connected, so my idea was just using one to control both. I don't know why it doesn't work as a bluetooth.
If I want to play in my TV I need to input de dongle because my TV doesn't recongnize as a bluetooth device neither.

[figmentPez]

Originally posted by Newbell:

I don't know why it doesn't work as a bluetooth.

Valve chose to use a proprietary wireless standard for the SC to reduce latency, and minimize compatability issues. Bluetooth has come a long way in the last 3 years, especially in regards to Bluetooth Low Energy, which was just a mess as far as compatibility was concerned with Bluetooth 4, which was the standard when the SC came out (and is still used in a lot of devices.)

It's still hard to find out what version(s) of Bluetooth any given phone or dongle supports, and I imagine Valve didn't want the technical support headache of customers confused when their Bluetooth doesn't support the Steam Controller because their Bluetooth is 4.0 Classic and not 4.0 Low Energy, and there's not a single bit of documentation on the web that actually says that directly.

If I want to play in my TV I need to input de dongle because my TV doesn't recongnize as a bluetooth device neither.

And that's another reason why Valve wanted their own dongle and not Bluetooth.

But if I have another controller I need to have two dongles connected,

You can connect multiple Steam Controllers to the same dongle.

[DaMu]

The USB dongle is NOT Bluetooth; it is Valve's proprietary wireless standard for SC. It's what we used when the SC launched, and multiple controllers can sync to one dongle, even though each controller from the Steam Store comes with one.

There is a way to enable Bluetooth mode on the SC if you don't have your dongle or you're not using the SC on a PC with Steam installed. Just leave the dongle attached to your desktop PC with Steam installed and forget about it. The SC will always pair up with it fine.