Windows Color Management Revisited & Solution

One of the most visited posts on this website is my article “Windows Vista Color Management = FAIL, But This May Help You…”.   It attempted to address a well-documented issue that has plagued both Windows Vista x32/x64 and now we learn that Windows 7 x32/x64 has the same problem.  The original article was written when Vista was in its prime and Win 7 was just barely announced.   I assumed that when Windows 7 debuted, this ridiculous issue with Windows not being able to hold an ICC color profile to save its life would be solved.   Well, Windows 7 hit the market and low and behold, the same bug still existed.

So the problem is this…  You create a ICC color profile using a 3rd party colorimeter and its accompanying calibration software.  When Windows boots or logs on, your 3rd party calibration profile management software properly loads your ICC profiles into your display and you are able to work in a color correct environment.  Great.  The trouble starts when Windows executes various tasks or events, such as a UAC prompt, or your screen locking after being left idle and then unlocking or switching user accounts.  When these sorts of things happen, Windows releases the correct color profiles that should be loaded and replaces them with a system default profile that is not correct for your monitor.    The only way to go back to the correct profiles was through completely logging off and back on, rebooting, or a variety of work arounds that people had come up with.    The work around that I preferred at the time, and is probably still a viable option is to use a free tool called “LUT Manager” which could be used to manually reload an ICC profile after it had been lost by Windows.  Take a look at the original article I wrote for instructions on how to use LUT Manager in Windows.

I found the LUT Manager process to be annoying and tedious, and frankly it was sometimes difficult to remember that I needed to load it before editing photos, but it worked.  Now I’m living in the Windows 7 world and after months and months of frustration, I have a new solution that is working great for me and I would like to share it now.

Believe it or not, this solution comes to us by way of simply using Window Vista / 7′s build in color management system.  The solution is basically we can tell Windows what the default ICC profile should ALWAYS be, without regard to what our 3rd party color management software wants to do.  So when you start your computer or log on, your calorimeter’s profile manager will do its thing and load up the correct profile for your display, just like usual, but after this walk through, whenever these events in Windows happen, such as the screen locking or a UAC prompt appears, you should be bounced back to the correct profile, since we will tell Windows what the correct profile is always supposed to be. In fact, it should be imperceptible.   Basically, it seems to me that there is a disconnect between the 3rd party profile managers and Windows’ native color management system, and they are fighting over who has the right to dictate what ICC profile is loaded, and when.  So, we will tame Windows Color Management and make it do our bidding.

Here we go…

1.  First things first, open up the Windows Color Management tool.  Simply click “Start” and type “color management” in the search box.  It should be one of the first results.

2. If it is not already, in the device pull down menu, select Display 1.

3. Check “Use my settings for this device”

4. In “Profiles associated with this device, you should see the ICC color profile that was created by your color correction software. Or in other words, the ICC profile that you want to have loaded at all times. I happen to have an Acer monitor with a profile I created in Sept 2010. So when I created an ICC profile using my colorimeter, i named it ACER_SEPT10.  You profile name will vary of course.   Select this profile and click the “Set as Default Profile” button.  If you do this correctly, the word “(default)” will appear next to the profile name.  If you don’t see the correct profile, (I don’t  know why this would happen, but I’m just saying..), click the “Add…” button and manually locate the correct profile and repeat the instructions in this step to set as the default profile.  Typically, color profiles are stored in \Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color.

5. If you have a dual monitor setup like me, after completing step 4,  Select “Dispaly 2″ from the Device drop down menu and then repeat step 4.  You will need to have a default profile set up for each monitor for this to work.  If you don’t know which monitor is which, click the “Identify monitors” button.

6. Ok, so now your default profiles are set, now click the “Profiles” button and select “Combine my settings with system defaults”

7. Now, click the “Advanced” tab in the Color Management window.

8. Click “Change System Defaults…”

9. In “Color Management – System Defaults” open the “Advanced” tab.

10. Click the  ”Use Windows display calibration” check box. If your profiles ARE NOT loaded at this time, hopefully as soon as you check this box, they will be.  Pay attention and see if there is a change.  There should be.  If you are doing this walk through and your correct profiles ARE loaded, then you won’t see aything happen, because you are already in a color corrected environment.

11. Click Close and Close again to exit Color Management and you’re done.

Now, with any luck (hey, it works for me at least), you shouldn’t have to worry about manually loading your lost profiles each time you need to work in a color corrected work flow.

Comments and suggestions welcome.  So far, this is working fine for me.