While downloading crysis 3 from torrents, I discovered that my WiFi is turned off. I wanted to tether internet from my laptop to my phone for which I need WiFi turned on.

I did a research...

Uninstalled the drivers, disabled it, again updated it, turned on/off airplane mode.. found nothing that could fix the issue.

I had a hunch, that if could turn on the WiFi from Linux (elementary OS) which I had installed along with Windows 8.1 then I could figure whether I need to reinstall the Windows or is it adapter problem ?

So I booted up elementary OS and was able to turn on WiFi. After booting back to Windows I was able to use, tether internet and it was back to normal.

I'm not sure if most of the users out there in forums or blogs complaining about the same had Linux installed?

If yes, then you can apply the same and resolve it.