I've been experimenting with a new wireless headset from Logitech. My machine is using vista, but I suspect this applies to other versions of windows too. It worked well, out of the box, until I thought I'd see if I could switch between it and the old desktop speakers.

Like a fool, I clicked on Control panel, -> Sound -> Playback, found the icon for the Logitech headset and right clicked it. On the box that came up, I then selected 'disable' and clicked it!

Big mistake!

It disabled it OK, but the icon vanished too! I had failed to notice that "Show disabled icon" had NOT been clicked! Without an Icon, of course I could not re-enable it!

I mention this as a warning. because two hours later after talking to both Logitech and Microsoft I was still unable to switch them on again. Both were helpful, sympathetic but baffled.

At that point I did what I should have done and did some research myself on the internet, and quickly found this little file which I copied into notepad, stored and ran it.

taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
attrib –h IconCache.db
del IconCache.db
start explorer.exe

This enables the display of all the icons, and solved the problem. I was able to re-enable the output to the headset without losing the icon.

Why microsoft have designed in a method of allowing people to lose complete control of their applications without apparently knowing how to recover it is baffling, but be warned. If you hit 'disable' with the thing set to hide disabled icons you can get into a lot of bother.

Hopefully this will save a lot of other folk screwing themselves the way I did, and if they do, perhaps this little program will help them to unscrew themselves again.

All the best for 2104 to everyone!

Control panel, -> Sound -> Playback , right click on Speakers and Headphones, select Show Disabled Devices. Right click on Communications Headphones and Enable Device.
Less than 5 seconds, not 2 hours

Or if nothing is enabled, just click on the empty box with your right mouse button and show disabled devices

Try system restore

Why restore when my way takes less than 5 seconds to do?
I deleted my icons to show how easy it is to recover them.

I obviously tried that but it didn't work in my case. Both microsoft and Logitech suggested it too.

I have to say that Microsoft were quite keen for me to pay them £65 to effect a guaranteed cure, but as far as I could make out seemed as baffled as me. Their 'worst case' would be a complete reinstallation of Windows. Fortunately I resisted the temptation to say yes.

I was on my phone when i read your first post.
Thanks for the warning to others.

Glad you never paid £65 for a fix.

* System Restore can resolve a multitude of sins, and keep your documents safe. Not all computers have this enabled, so if you get a chance check your system restore settings.

* The Disable is the same as unplugging the card from your pc.
* Hidden disabled icons ! forgot about that one

Glad your up and running.

All the best 2014 mark

Well, that's the wonder of Windows!

The little fix seems to have got Zipperclub's suggestion of right clicking in the empty box working again too.

I have to say that this is not the first time I've found a problem which after ages of fiddling about has yielded to a simple fix. It's fine if you know what the fix is, but if you don't it can be difficult to find.

A happy 2014 to you too, Mark, as well as everyone else on this board.

(I notice in an earlier post, I wished everyone a very happy 2104 as well. This still stands of course, but I doubt if many of us will be around to celebrate it!)

Sorry if I'm hijacking this thread but talking of icons, I have just discovered SkyDrive having got nowhere with GoogleDrive. The former works well so far between my PC and my phone, but how do I get the SkyDrive icon on to my PC's desktop? I know it sounds simple but I haven't found out how to do it, whatever I click on. I've got it in favourites but surely there's a desktop icon available. Any help most welcome. I have Windows 7 BTW.

Managed to get an icon, but it's more like the advert but I can reach what I want from there, although it's not a direct route like the app symbol on my phone. Good enough though.

Normally right click create desktop short-cut.
Not sure what version of windows your running.