CodingForums.com - Beginner Question: Create simple custom UI element?

Hello all,

I'm new here and to learning about computers in general. Taking a Computer Science course, couple online classes, trying to self-educate, broaden my horizons, all that good stuff. Never had a computer of my own up until recently, so I'm pretty excited to learn anything and everything I can.

My question for you guys (and I apologize in advance if I posted this in the wrong place) is how would a novice such as myself go about creating a UI element attached to volume control?

For example, my laptop (or netbook, I should say--HP Mini 110-3030NR running Win7 Starter x32) has three built-in volume keys (which also function as F9-11 when the 'fn' key is held): one for decreasing the volume, another for increasing, and the third for toggling mute.

Now, these keys function well enough as they are, however, I was thinking how much more convenient it would be if I were able to make it so that the current volume appears on the screen briefly (at the bottom for a half-second or two, perhaps--something along the lines of how an iPhone's display behaves when the volume is adjusted or silent switch is toggled, just maybe not smack-dab in the middle of the screen, haha) whenever I decrease/increase volume (maybe also have some sort of 'cancel' symbol imposed over a 'speaker' symbol appear when I toggle the mute and have the speaker symbol appear by itself when mute is untoggled).

So, again, my question is, how would I begin going about creating a program or whatever you might call something like this to perform this function. I've seen other laptops with this functionality built in--mine doesn't have this obviously, but I'd like to do it myself.

Doesn't have to be anything fancy, either--I'm already running the OS at the 'ugliest' possible settings to compensate for the fact that my system doesn't exactly have a terrible amount of power/memory.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone might be able to offer!
--J.D.