DISABLING THE C-MEDIA MIXER

I searched for a solution to this but couldn't find one - instead all I found was unanswered posts asking how to get rid of it.  I did some exploring on my own computer and figured out how to remove it without deleting anything.

I can only hope this makes it onto a search engine so that more people can get this useless and irritating application out of their system tray.

I went into my Control Panel and clicked on Sounds.  I had to re-select "Show volume control on the taskbar" because c-media apparently disables it.  I then went into the Hardware tab, clicked on "CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device," clicked on "Properties" and selected "Do not use this device" from the drop-down menu.   I clicked on OK and I am now C-Media mixer free. 

I hope this helps anyone else who's irritated with this thing and can't get it off.