BIll, I use jetAudio as my standard audio/video player and I've never had that problem.

leenia, if you want the volume icon back on the taskbar use: Start/Control Panel/Sounds and Audio devices, and on the Volume tab there's a check-box for Place volume icon in the taskbar. If you click that (so a tick appears) and then press the Apply button at the bottom you'll get it back.

I've never noticed YouTube turning midi down, but I imagine they do it to prevent other sounds possibly interfering with the audio on the clip.

Mick