How to troubleshoot missing network connections icons in Windows XP

One or more of the following issues may occur if you click Start, point to and click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections, or if you right-click My Network Places on the desktop and then click Properties:

To troubleshoot these problems, follow these steps:

1.	Verify the network adapter setting: a. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. b. Click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager. c. Expand Network Adapters, and then verify that the correct network adapter is listed. d. Double-click the network adapter, and then verify that the "This device is working properly" message appears in the Device status box on the General tab.
2.	Verify that necessary services are started: a. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage. b. Expand Services and Applications, and then click Services. c. In the right pane, verify that the following services are started: • Remote Procedure Call (RPC) • Network Connections (this service depends on RPC service) • Plug and Play • COM+ Event System (this service depends on RPC service) • Remote Access Connection Manager (this service depends on Telephony service) • Telephony (this service depends on RPC service and on PnP service)
3.	Verify the logon setting: a. Double-click the COM+ Event System service. b. Click the Log On tab. c. Under Log on as, verify that Local System account is selected. This is the default setting.
4.	Verify the desktop interaction setting: a. Double-click the Network Connection service. b. Click the Log On tab. c. Under Log on as, verify that Local System account is selected. d. Verify that the Allow service to interact with desktop option is turned on.
5.	Verify the networking services setting: a. In Control Panel, double-click Add or Remove Programs. b. Click Add/Remove Windows Components. c. Click Networking Services, and then click Details. Verify that Simple TCP/IP Services is turned on.
6.	Verify that the network DLL files are registered correctly: a. Click Start, and then click Run. b. Type cmd.exe, and then click OK. c. Type the following lines, and then press ENTER after you type each line. Click OK when the RegSvr32 dialog box appears for each command. regsvr32 netshell.dll regsvr32 netcfgx.dll regsvr32 netman.dll d. Restart the computer.
7.	Verify that all Windows Protected Files in the System32 folder are intact. At a command prompt, type sfc /purgecache, and then press ENTER. The Windows File Checker starts.
8.	Verify that the registry keys are intact and correct: a. Start Registry Editor. b. Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{0000010C-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} Verify that the subkeys NumMethods and ProxyStubClsid32 exist and that their values are correct. If these registry subkeys do not exist, create them..
9.	Use the Dcomcnfg.exe utility to reset the Default Impersonation Level setting: a. Click Start, click Run, type dcomcnfg, and then click OK. b. In Component Services, click Computers, right-click the computer whose machine-wide impersonation level you want to modify, and then click Properties. c. Click the Default Properties tab, and then click to select the Enable Distributed COM on this computer check box for this computer. d. Click any setting other than Anonymous in the Default Impersonation Level box, and then click OK. The new machine-wide impersonation level is available the next time that you start a program. Programs that are currently running are not affected until you restart them.
10.	If only the Dial-up Connection icons are missing, temporarily add a bogus standard modem, and then see if the connection icons appear.
11.	Make sure that there are no nonpresent, ghosted, or hidden network adapters in your computer.
12.	Remove network adapter(s) in Device Manager: a. Right-click My Computer, click Properties, click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager. b. To see the list of installed network adapters, double-click Network adapter(s), and then click Remove. c. Restart the computer, and then let the system automatically detect and install the network adapter drivers. Note This step detects and corrects corrupted registry entries on network adapter bindings. Perform this step if all other troubleshooting steps do not resolve your issue. Always perform this step before you decide to manually remove a network adapter card.
13.	Remove any third-party network adapter management software. Temporarily remove any teaming software. The following combination is known to be incompatible:   Dual-Port Intel Pro 100+ Server Adapter with Intel Teaming Software running an SNMP component. For an updated version of the Intel SNMP agent (Ilansnmp.dll) and for more information, contact the network adapter manufacturer or the third-party software vendor.
14.	At the command prompt, type winmgmt /clearadap, and then press ENTER. This command removes all the AutoDiscovery/AutoPurge (ADAP) information from the registry and resets the state of each performance library. The ADAP tool stores state information about the system performance libraries in the registry.
15.	When you right-click the My Network Places icon and then click Properties, the Network Connections window starts to open but then closes immediately or "hangs." To fix this issue, follow these steps:   a. Start Registry Editor. b. Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network c. Right-click the Network subkey, click Export, and then save the selected branch in a file. d. Click the Network subkey again, and then delete the Config entry. Do not delete the Network subkey. The Config entry will be reconstructed when you restart the computer. e. Restart the computer. (You may have to manually turn off the computer.)