Why is my Windows xp not detecting any wireless connections in taskbar or network settings?

Question

Just 1 hour ago before I used this laptop it had a blue screen problem showing on startup so I performed a full reset on it, than everything goes right after I typed my general pc name, region etc.

It than asked for m password to my Wi-Fi and it connects fine to it so I started removing programs I didn't need in control panel, at same time it started installing 19 programs and after it got done I restarted the pc and

BAM the taskbar only displayed a local area connection 3 tab and t hat is enabled but it says firewalled so i turned off firewalls( thought maybe that or McAfee was messing around with the wireless adaptor or maybe internet explorer settings has somehow removed the WIRELESS ADAPTOR CONPLETELY FRO MY PC.

Last thing that I might have done was uninstalled a wireless driver in the control panel on accident but other than that I did try all of these steps on this website
Here---> https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/825826/how-to-troubleshoot-missing-network-connections-icons-in-windows-serve

If anybody can't find a solution to fixing wireless driver/adaptor I would like to know what the steps to performing another reset because that's how I got to connect in the 1st place

ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Answer 1

If you reset the laptop and the WIFI driver is old, you may need to download and reinstall the newer driver.  

Answer 2

How did you reset the laptop in the first place? to reset windows XP you will need to boot off the installation/recovery DVD that was provided with the laptop. Some laptops have a built in recovery partition, however, with no further details of the mystery laptop we are unable to help further

Restart the computer again, carefully look at the boot screen, it may say which keys to press to start the recovery it could one of the function keys or a combination

Answer 3

XP odds are someone found it and attacked it, please note XP is no longer supported and is not secure. Update to at least windows 7