In standalone mode It would be good to have an overall volume control and maybe some very simple speaker/monitor options. Doesn’t have to be sophisticated like the cubase control room - something like the basic one in Wavelab would be good.
Duly noted - actually already on the wish list for SL8 
excellent
NirSoft’s Volumouse works really well for PC’s that do not have a easy to access volume control.
FWIW, NirSoft has many other great utilities as well.
Otherwise, if you have a Dell laptop, most have the F2, F3 and F4 keys as: Mute, volume down, volume up
ASIO drivers - different driver model
+1
volume fader(s) would be extremely useful