Well, go into the ATi display properties, one of the tabs has a checkbox for the Control Panel in the Systray, this can be unchecked and on the next reboot it should be gone. Also, when you install the device drivers, you need to choose Custom install and you can then uncheck the ATi Control Panel installation at that point

As for the colors, that I can't help you with, I've not experienced any issues like this after installing any of the latest Catalyst driver packs...