Google "Blank Device Manager"; end up on a forum that is 2-3 years old. Look through the 277 messages on the forum. One that seems to work says go into the Registry Editor, find a certain key and make some changes. First his instructions (in spite of saying they were for Windows 2000 and XP) really only apply to Win2000; but can make some deductions for XP's changes. Then when I hit the "Add" button I get different window from what these instructions imply. Go fix a problem in the garden and contemplate. Come back and read another forum suggested by the first one. Maybe Plug and Play Services are not turned on but they are; well, then check out Universal Plug and Play Services. They are disabled but can Start them. Still a blank Device Manager window. Do find that someone else had a problem like this when they installed a Logitech update a couple of years ago; in fact, others had it happen when installing certain sound card drivers or USB-connected devices. Oh, and the only sure fire successful option was to reinstall Windows; not enough time before departure to do that exercise. And Microsoft tech support was of no assistance, according to some of the entries.

Go check on another PC in the house with Windows XP Home (I have Professional); find this particular key is consistent with the forum instructions after all but deduce maybe I can make some "similar" settings on my laptop. Then came an opportunity to check another Windows XP Pro laptop; found it was consistent with the Home version but I am showing something different as to the Users/Groups designations. So finally take a gamble, click on the two permissions under the category that is shown on my laptop. Check the Device Manager. Voilà! Everything is there. But still no signs of access to Network Connections. Reboot the PC and Voilà! The wireless SysTray icon appears and Network Connections are finally showing.

This type of issue is what threatens Windows. For the installation of new drivers for what is becoming a common consumer device, namely a webcam, the user must have the powers of deductive reasoning along with significant intuition and experience (not to mention access to Google and to three or four additional PC's) to determine how to diagnose and fix the problem. With Parallels available to run any program that only has a Windows version, I foresee why we are going to see a significant migration to Macs and MacBooks over the next couple of years. The MacBook has just become a serious candidate for my next laptop.

The trick? Run Regedt32 (no "i"), click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE; scroll down to "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum". Select Enum, right click and select "Permission" (in Win2000, one goes to "Security | Permissions"). Select "Administrators...." (where every other PC mentioned above had two items: Everyone and SYSTEM"), see that "Full Control" and "Read" boxes are not checked off, so check them off. Click Apply, OK and close Registry Editor. I assume the new Logitech driver cleared those check boxes. Now you know! (And make sure your ISP's Internet service has not been hit by a weather event.) Five hours of research to be able to give you this trivial, but mission critical, advice. Not recommended for the faint of heart nor if you have not backed up your registry. And definitely not for Joe/Jo average consumer.

The good news: once I had the Internet connection back, Skype did work even without access to Network Connections, etc. But I did want to spend this time writing one of my lead-up posts to the Skype DevCon instead of just making sure I had a functional laptop.

Update: I forgot to mention that, on reading through the forums, you also lose your System Restore points. I had tried an System Restore near the beginning of this exercise and, sure enough, I had lost my System Restore points.

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