Hey! Been a while, how's everyone doing? I'm fine, despite being unemployed and broke.

But hey, down to business. I cracked and started dual-booting because I couldn't play starcraft with my friends while running linux. Ever since I installed everything, using the disk that came with my laptop, the sound taskbar tray icon doesn't appear. It will come back, if I go into the control panel -> sounds and audio devices. Here's the thing that gets me, though. The box to "place volume icon in the taskbar" is checked! I have to uncheck, apply, recheck, okay, EVERY TIME I start the computer.

My question is this:
A - is there anyway to fix this problem?
B - If not, is there any way I could run a script on startup that would do this for me (and how)
C - does anyone know which drivers I need for a compaq laptop to get the volume buttons on the side to work? Because if I had that, this wouldn't be as much of a problem.

Thanks a lot in advance, guys.