How to recover VLC icon at the bottom black bar left corner

I'll try to explain what I mean.

I once experimented with both players (MPC-HC and VLC) and I managed to get the optimum performance but I do not remember how I did it. I only know that I had installed both players, I launched videos by the MPC but on the black bar at the bottom left corner was a small VLC icon. Yesterday I did system refresh (Windows 8.1) and innstalled both players but the VLC icon is not there. Can someone explain to me how to configure both players to again VLC icon appeared?

That small icon in MPC-HC only indicates which application is set as default for opening that type of file. It does not have any effect at all on the performance of either player.

If by performance you mean CPU usage, then try enabling DXVA2 hardware acceleration in LAV Video decoder settings. Then decoding work is moved to your graphics card. This works for MPC-HC. It has no effect on quality, just CPU usage.

VLC uses its own private codecs. You can find a hardware acceleration option its in settings too.