Stop Bluetooth revealing PC’S name

As long as your PC has Bluetooth (either built in or via something like Tp-link’s £7.99 adapter – www.snipca.com/37257), you can connect all manner of devices to it, including phones, headsets, keyboards and mice. To make it easier to connect new devices, Windows ‘advertises’ your PC’S Bluetooth connection. This means that you’ll see your PC’S name if you search for nearby devices using your phone, for example. Similarly, when you’re in a public place, other people may see your PC when searching for Bluetooth devices. Depending on how you’ve named your PC, this could reveal personal information. If you’re not sure what name your PC has, click Start, type about your PC, press Enter, then look under ‘Device name’.

One option is to rename your PC to something more generic (click ‘Rename this PC’ in the ‘About your PC’ window), but you may prefer to stop your PC advertising itself to nearby Bluetooth devices. To do this, open Settings (press the Windows key+i), Devices, Bluetooth, then click ‘More Bluetooth options’ (this will be located either at the bottom of the window or on the right). Select the Options tab, then untick the ‘Allow Bluetooth devices to find this PC’ box (see screenshot above) and click OK. In Windows 7, the same option is available by opening Control Panel, then searching for Bluetooth Settings.

Bear in mind that you may need to temporarily re-enable this setting if you want to connect a new Bluetooth device to your PC.