Networks Icon absent in the system tray

Hi,

I had not used my machine for about 3 months when I was away. After I came back, it had some problems. I got them set right at the local computer shop. Problems included "bad bios checksum" and the windows BSOD. Though I dint need to reinstall windows, I had to update my bios and everything seems working fine now.

My computer is part of a LAN in the university i study. Normally, when the computer boots up, I see the network icon shown in the system tray. But now, after all these system "updates", there seems to be a small problem. That icon is absent. However, I am able to access the internet. I am able to access other computers on the LAN.

In the "Network Connections" in the Control Panel, there arent any networks shown/listed. When i click refresh, it shows me an error message which says
"

The Networks connections folder was unable to retrieve the list of Network adapters on your machine. Please make sure that the Networks Connections service is enabled and running​

"

I checked that it was indeed started (and I restarted it, but to no avail).

I use a ASUS K8N motherboard.

Any suggestions as to how I can get that icon back in my system tray?

Leftit.

 

open network connections

right click on the LAN

select properties

tick the box maked show icon in task bar when connected.

 

As I already mentioned, there were no connections shown in the "Network Connections" folder.

What I did was to right click on the empty space and refreshed, hoping that some network would show up. And that is when the error I reported earlier occured.