Studio 15 (1555) keyboard function keys

Hello!

I just got a brand new Studio 15 and am a little frustrated at the function keys - it seems that (by default) all the function keys are the alternate functions and in order to get my oh-so-useful F1,F2...F12 keys I actually have to press the Fn button.  Please tell me that there is a way to reverse this behaviour.  For example in order to close a window I should just be able to press ALT-F4 instead of ALT-FN-F4.  I would much rather have to press Fn-F4 to lower the brightness and ALT-F4 to close.

Also why are there no status LEDs at all?  I miss my hard drive/battery/power LEDs :(

Thanks for any help!