If you are unable to upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 10 due to a Realtek Bluetooth driver error here is the approach you need to follow to fix it and successfully upgrade your Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 and Windows 11 respectively.
Note that this approach is only for those that use both Windows media creation tools or booth from a USB drive. And for those that would love to do a clean installation of the Windows 10 directly from Windows 8 instead of using the Windows 10 media creation tool upgrade now feature you might not experience…
“Realtek Bluetooth”: your PC has a driver or service that isn’t ready for this version of Windows 10. A new version is available. Please go to aka.ms/realtek_bt_1_5 to learn more.
However, let us first take a look at how to upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 10 using the Microsoft windows media creation tool.
How to Upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 10
Follow the steps below to use the Microsoft windows media creation tool to upgrade your Windows 8 or 8.1 to Windows 10 or 11.
- Go to Microsoft to download the Windows media creation tool.
- Launch the tool (and make sure you are connected to the internet).
- Accept the terms and conditions to proceed otherwise the procedure will be declined.
- Wait for a couple of minutes until the tool successfully checks for all updates.
- Choose what to keep and click on the “Next” button.
- Choose “Upgrade Now” to upgrade Windows OS from Windows 8 to Windows 10.
- Wait for a couple of minutes after which the Windows will start installing Windows 10 on your PC to replace Windows 8 or 8.1
- If nothing stops the installation the PC will restart multiple times until the Windows upgrading is completed. However, if you are stalked by the Realtek Bluetooth error you will not be able to proceed or might encounter Windows 10 installation fail.
However, if you are stopped by the Realtek Bluetooth driver error the following steps will help you to go past the point and successfully upgrade your Windows 8 to Windows 10.
Unable to Upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 10
Below are the steps I took to bypass the Realtek Bluetooth error to upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10 and it worked for me. So, I believe it should work for you as well.
- Click on your Windows 8 “File Explorer.”
- Click on “This PC” >> C: or Windows8_OS (C:)
- Scroll down and click on “Windows” >> “System32.”
- Select “Drivers” and delete “RtkBtfilter.sys.”
- Done.
The “RtkBtfilter.sys” is an old Realtek Bluetooth driver that is not in use but detects by the Windows 8 upgrade to Windows 10 as an active driver that needed to be upgraded. So, without removing it the Windows 8 PC will not be upgraded to Windows 10 or the recent version.
This works for me and most people that are unable to upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10 online and it should work for you if the Realtek Bluetooth driver is what is stopping the Windows 10 upgrade.
How to Fix Windows 8 Upgrade to Windows 10 Realtek Bluetooth Failure
This also might work for you to fix the Windows 8 upgrade error. Meanwhile, you will need internet access to accomplish this.
- Download the official Realtek Bluetooth audio driver [driver 1 and driver 2].
- Extract both driver 1 and driver 2 into the same folder but a different sub-folder.
- Go to “Control Panael” >> System & security >> Device Manager.”
- Click on “Bluetooth” to expand it.
- Right-click on “Realtek Bluetooth” and select “Update driver” from the expansion.
- Click on “Browse” and your PC should automatically detect the Realtek Bluetooth driver and click on the “OK” to install the Realtek Bluetooth update. But if it doesn’t find the driver, navigate to the folder and select the driver. Repeat this for both drivers.
- Done.
This works when you want to upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 10 version 1909.