Control Panel -> Sounds and Multimedia -> Disselect the checkbox for 'Show volume control on taskbar'.
Not sure about your second question, though.

Sometimes when you change resolutions on the fly, the icons in the taskbar get pixelated and funny looking. Logging out and then back in or restarting the computer fixes this. I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to though.

Thanks peeps, I found it. Right click the icon, go to adjust control settings, and uncheck 'Show volume control on taskbar,' finally "apply."

No CSC, I was referring to the small icons on the bottom right of my task bar, not the desktop icons, but the only real ugly one was the volume settings icon for some reason.

I use iconoid to customize my icons because Windows 2000 is pretty weak in customization, although I can do some things from my videocard's display settings. I finally found some cool desktop themes for Windows 2000 as well, and they've worked nicely plus safe/virus free.

This is a very old computer, I'm making a new one so I can play around with this one a bit, I may turn it into a firewall just for fun, but basically I can't run Window XP on this old timer.

Thanks again.