Mission - Paring UE Mini Boom with Windows 7 machine via Bluetooth A2DP

I was getting tired of not having my speakers in each room as I move around the house. Also when streaming from my phone, then a phone comes, I disconnect the phone and after finishing the call forget to go plug in back in. Not ideal.
I have looking to fix this and after I visited my friend's place some time ago, I realized that the Bluetooth speakers don't sound so bad these days anymore and can be pretty much usable for any average listener.

Some time later I ran into a comparison on The Wirecutter and was persuaded the UE Mini Boom was the right choice for me.
There is a bit bit of confusion in the usage of the UE and Logitech brands there. Apparently the previous version of the speaker - Logitech UE Mobile Boombox was marketed under Logitech header with UE as a co-branding while with the new version, it was released as UE Mini Boom and the product line was moved to dedicated site at www.ultimateears.com

Nevertheless I have had this cute little speaker for several weeks now and never had a problem using it while paired to my handphone from day 1. Until today.
Today I decided to watch a movie on my laptop in bed and thought would just bring my handy speaker along. Plug and Play. NOT.
Managed to pair the speaker, Windows promptly identified the device as an unidentified Bluetooth headset and started installing the drivers. Wasn't suspecting anything until the Windows pop-up announced: "Device driver software was not successfully installed. Bluetooth Peripheral Device. No driver found."
Hmm, so much for the plugging part.
Google results quickly revealed that I am surely not the only one having this problem...

...fast forward many hours googling and trial and error.

I found answers for most of my questions in this Microsoft forum thread
Most importantly that Bluetooth stack in Windows 7 does not support A2DP profiles so one way or another you need to update your Bluetooth drivers either from our laptop manufacturer or the Bluetooth module manufacturer (e.g. Broadcom, Toshiba, Intel...)
You can find our BT module manufacturer in Device Manager - Bluetooth Radios. You will most likely see at least 2 items. One being Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator. The other one should be your BT module. Open Properties and on General tab you will see Manufacturer. Unless it shows one of the usual names, it might not be a real manufacturer (for example before I updated my drivers it showed HP, which is not what one wants to see). Alternatively you can see the Manufacturer Id on Advanced tab. Mine shows 15. Checking Company Identifiers table in bluetooth.org reveals that Id 15 is assigned to Broadcom Corporation.

I eventually found the Software Support for HP Integrated Module with Bluetooth Wireless Technology for Microsoft Windows 7 drivers in HP support site and after installing the new drivers, removing the Bluetooth headset device, restarting the PC and reconnecting the UE Mini, it paired and it successfully installed 3 drivers so now I can PLAY.

Too bad I have no time for the movie anymore after several hours wasted searching for the solution. At least I hope this post will eventually help someone fix a similar problem.

My first ever blog...

Was thinking to set up my own blog for a while but was always too lazy or had always something more "important" to do. Tonight by chance I went to my gmail account which I haven't logged into for a long time. I have never really used it, just set it up years ago when it first showed up. I was just trying to figure out what is wrong with our ISP smtp server which didn't want to send an email to a particular email address. Well, experimenting with SMTP soon ended when I found out I can actually set up a blog directly with my gmail account without having to go through lengthy registration somewhere else. So here I am, hope this is not my last post :-S