Microphone volume drops by itself

I have a very weird issue with my microphone.

What happens is that when starting FS2Crew at the very same moment I click the clickspot to start FS2Crew the volume of my microphone drops down to 18%, I normally have it set at 75%.

I have tried several different settings like unchecking the option in Windows 7 to allow applications to take exclusive control of the device, making sure 'Do nothing' is checked on the Communication Tab under Sound settings, unchecking all effects for the microphone on the Effects tab etc etc but all to no avail.

After doing some Google searching I've learned that I'm far from alone having issues in Windows 7 with the microphone volume slider living it's own life and not only when running FSX so this problem is not isolated to FS2Crew...I just happened to see that starting FS2Crew is one thing that will make the mic volume adjust by itself and in my case drop to 18%.

Yesterday I came across one thread where it was suggested to use some freeware tool to constantly reset the mic volume to a preset level you choose but I rather not use such a tool that needs to be running in the background all the time.

Anyone in here seen this or better yet knows how to fix it?

I do lots of FSX recording and it's very frustrating realizing the mic volume was too low after a long recording session.

Any tips greatly appreciated!