Soundcard Blues (and yellows and greys)

Hi everybody in music land - i had windows 98 and mc 2002 all worked lovely. Now ive upgraded to a new computer with xp and it's hassle all the way! I have no idea what soundcard my system has, as me bird has thrown all the stuff away.
I think i need to turn off 'what u hear' on my sound card but ive no idea how to do that - can anybody help - also, my friendly little speaker that used to be yellow and had a recording option on properties in now grey and unfriendly, with no recording faders at all - there is a brown speaker with lots and lots of options - can anybody throw me a line?

cheers
Chast
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