Adobe Illustrator Layers Palette has disappeared

I have been working on a new logo today for Warson Capital Partners, my tool of choice for logo design is Adobe Illustrator.

Every once in a while I encounter an annoying problem with Illustrator - the layers palette just disappears and nothing I do within the program itself will bring it back.

Here are the steps I take to fix the problem

1. Close Adobe Illustrator
   
2. Locate Aiprefs - this is the file where all the runtime preferences are stored. This is a hidden file so run a search on your system disc.
3. Delete Aiprefs. This is completely safe as Illustrator will generate a new file when it is next started.
4. Re-open Adobe Illustrator. The menu palette will now be accessible once again.