In my Win7 Home Premium:

START|ALL PROGRAMS|ACCESSORIES|SYSTEM TOOLS|SYSTEM INFORMATION\System Summary\Components\Mulitmedia\Sound Device

Should tell you what sound "card" is in the computer. In a laptop especially, it's likely to be on the motherboard and not a separate component; but usually an indentification will show.

SOME makers may use a "generic" component set that has no identifiable "sound card" identity, but most recent ones will give you enough info to find anything necessary.

My Lenovo desktop shows:
Name        Realtek High Definition Audio
Manufacturer        Realtek
Status        OK
PNP Device IDHDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0662&SUBSYS_17AA3616&REV_1001\4&1C79C827&0&0001
Driver        c:\windows\system32\drivers\rtkvhd64.sys (6.0.1.6230, 2.41 MB (2,530,152 bytes), 10/24/2011 7:21 PM)

A separate branch in the same vicinity will tell you what CODECS are installed.

You should be able to select a "branch" of the SYSINFO report and print it, if you need to show it to someone, or with a branch "selected" you can copy (Ctl-C) and paste short pieces of the info.

DO NOT try to just print all of SYSINFO, since even in WinXP you'd need about 30,000 sheets in your printer magazine before it will quit. I haven't looked, but it's almost certain that Win7 has "more stuff" there than was in the older ones.

Also note that Win7 Home Basic may not show all the info, but I haven't found a description of the limitations in it. The only thing Mickey tells us is that "it lacks some system tools."

John