First of all, yes, i have read all other similar questions.
Secondly, i am developing app (WP 8.1 WinRT), which must use Beacons. I read a lot about it, and i know, that generally connection with BLE device is not possible without pairing it first. But hope dies last, so i want to ask about any possibilities I have. It is possible to pair devices in code (according to articles I have read - its not, but maybe someone know the way)? Or just obtain nearby Beacons Id or Name, or ANY information about them? All posts i have found are outdated (from last year, maybe MS or somebody released some update/api?) I search for any kind of solution, api or just idea how to avoid pairing problem. Pairing it manually won't work - 1. not sure if it is possible to pair beacons, 2. its too many of them (beacons I need) I look for anyway to communicate or even obtain beacons. I would be grateful for any option or idea
While I have not tried it yet, there a developer has built an HCI layer to talk directly to bluetooth dongles on pre-Windows 10 machines. It is available here: WinBeacon
This will only work on desktop machines, and not with mobile phones. If you are interested in mobile phones with Windows 8.x, I do not believe there is any solution. I have spoken with Microsoft engineers who have confirmed this to me.
The fundamental problem with Windows 8.x on mobile devices is that any Bluetooth LE scan operation (which is what must be done to search for beacons) must be initiated by the operating system. There is no public API and no known private API that can be used to initiate a Bluetooth LE scan. Pairing with the device will not help -- it is the scan that is important and iBeacon and similar BLE beacon types do not use pairing at all for their primary proximity detection purpose.
Microsoft engineers have told me there are no plans to add this feature to 8.x, as they want to push folks to Windows 10.
While I know this does not help for Windows 8.x, I will note for the record that for the upcoming Windows 10 release, we are working on a port of the Android Beacon Library to Windows here.