FightingScallion

Alright, I'm going to try to describe how to get there for you.

Open Control Panel (maybe in classic mode? I don't know), in there should be a Blue Icon with Yellow Note that is the Realtek Audio Manager (if not there, get the brown speaker in lower right task bar; white speaker is windows, brown is Realtek). When that opens, you have a bunch of tabs at the top. Open the "Microphone" one (between auxillary and digital receiver). There will be two sliders. Top one says Microphone Boost/Volume. Bottom one is "Feedback". Move this, and get rid of little red "x". That should let you play that back.

The key is to get to the Audio Manager. The other stuff, at this point, is only secondary to the issue. The muting issue is within that.

Hopefully that is right. I'm getting my information over the phone from my brother who has a Realtek. Give that a go. If that doesn't work, update the driver for that. There's a chance it will install that program with the updates.