Lock down audio settings - possible?

[RoloTomasi]

I've noticed that when I use chat programs, both my playback and recording audio settings are automatically adjusted by the chat program. In Skype you can disable the auto-adjust but not in other chat programs.

Is there an easy way to lock down my soundcard's audio settings permanently?. There's no option to do this in the soundcard settings.
Any free windows software that can perhaps do this? I can't find any (yet).