I'm having problems with my outer/front audio control panel on my laptop. Help?

I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop, and it has an audio control panel on the outer front. I can control iTunes with this (skipping tracks, pausing/playing/stoping) when iTunes is the front/main application that is open, but if there are any other applications in front of iTunes, then I can't control the audio going on in iTunes.





I used to be able to do this before I wiped my hard drive.





If anybody knows the problem or how to fix it, that would be great.





Thanks!I'm having problems with my outer/front audio control panel on my laptop. Help?
Itunes is overriding your computer.