"to configure TCP/IP, you must install and enable a network adapter card."

[Ichinisan]

I briefly skimmed through these posts, but I did not catch the part where you went into Programs and features and uninstalled the software (If there is an installer most of the time it should show up as a program to uninstall).
You could have done this without having to hook the WiFi adapter up to the computer. Then after that download and run CCleaner. (Useful tool but can cause issues if your not 100% sure what you are doing)

The only thing that made me hesitate to upgrade to Windows 10 was the fear that this issue might break something. Once the problem was resolved, I went into list of installed software, sorted by install date, and systematically removed everything starting with most-recently-installed and working my way backward, skipping framework packages. Then, I repeated that process to remove each framework package until there was nothing installed. I looked at every item I removed. My short term memory is so bad, I honestly can't tell you if I saw a Netgear package in the list of installed software.

Anyway, the Win10 update went smoothly.