As stated in the heading, my taskbar's wifi icon has disappeared and I also no longer see any references to wifi or wireless under my control panel's network settings, or under the device manager's network adapter category.

I do continue to have a functioning Ethernet cable/hardwired network with my Linksys 160N Wireless Router, but the wifi references and indicators on my computer have all disappeared.

I am using an updated version of Windows 10 Pro, and have seen references on the Web about the Windows Creator update causing wifi to disappear in numerous cases (among other flaws it creates), but I've been unable to complete any of the proposed solutions to fix that problem for one reason or the other. Basically I just get so far through the instructions and hit a snag that keeps me from proceeding.

Are there any simple steps that anyone can recommend to help clarify and establish the precise nature of the problem I've recently developed... Router wireless capability issue? computer's network adapter?

I wasn't really conscious of this issue until I recently purchased an Amazon Echo Dot and tried to set it up via a downloaded app for my smart phone. It couldn't detect any wifi networks present, so I had to unplug it and set it aside until I fix this wifi problem.

Formerly I could always pull up a list of available nearby networks (neighbor's), and it included my own wifi of course and always an Xfinity/Comcast public hotspot (which was probably just a piggyback on one of my neighbor's Comcast routers).

I would greatly appreciate anyone stepping in with some help if you think you might have and idea of what's gone wrong here, and/or how to go about determining the exact nature and source of the problem

Are you using a laptop or tablet ? Or is this a desk top computer? Have you tried doing a hardwarew search under device manager to see if it comes back? Have you tried reinstalling the drivers for it ?