Adobe Gamma Loader + Vista

E
Posted By
EightOHonE
Apr 6, 2007
Views
2821
Replies
38
Status
Closed
hello didnt know which would be the proper forum section to post this, so hopefully someone here can help me.

have a new HP Pavilion laptop with Vista Home Premium. the problem is that the screen contrast is very low.
there are no hardware controls to adjust this.

so the only solution i could think of is to "install" Adobe Gamma Loader.

did this by copying the files from my WinXP machine and put it into the Common Files folder into my Vista laptop.

also put a shortcut in the Startup folder.

now here is the strange part…

when i boot up the laptop, Adobe Gamma Loader loads up for about 10 seconds, then it unloads.

have to manually click on the Gamma Loader shortcut in order for my screen to remain adjusted.

how can i get the Gamma Loader to stay loaded?

also, there is Adobe Gamma Loader isnt listed in the Control Panel, like it is in XP. though i suspect the reason for this is because i copy and pasted it to the Common Files, rather than installing it Photoshop or Illustrator. can someone confirm this for me?

thanks
-801

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RK
Rob_Keijzer
Apr 6, 2007
Copying the files from a previous computer makes little sense.

Run Adobe Gamma again on the new computer, creating a fresh profile.

Rob
TG
Tom Glowka
Apr 6, 2007
Are we sure it is Vista compatible?
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Apr 6, 2007
Are we sure it is Vista compatible?

I don’t know which version of Ps we’re talking about.

Rob
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EightOHonE
Apr 6, 2007
Rob, the reason why i copied the files was because the following link said it was alright to do so…

< http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=3333 56>

plus i do not need photoshop on this computer. though i think i may have to install it, just to troubleshoot the problem. i just dont understand why it would load, and then unload.
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Apr 6, 2007
Again, which version of Ps are we talking about?
E
EightOHonE
Apr 6, 2007
Photoshop CS2

but that shouldnt even be an issue, as it is not necessary to have PS installed in order for the Gamma Loader to work. the problem only entails that the Gamma Loader unloads after windows (vista) has completely booted.

either way, i did go ahead and installed PS/ImageReady CS2. but the installation did not include Adobe Gamma Loader. so now i’m back adding the files to the Common Files folder again.

is there anything else you can think of?

thanks
-801
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Apr 7, 2007
Make sure that you’re in admin mode. Also you have to run Adobe Gamma (Control Panel) first.

After having done that, save the .icc file under a meaningful name (monitor_070407.icc for instance).

Then it is set as the current profile. Gamma Loader runs on start-up only.

But, I don’t know how Vista may be interfering with all this, and also note that Vista isn’t supported for CS2, so you may have to live with a certain annoying behaviour.

Rob
CC
Charlie_Choc
Apr 7, 2007
But, I don’t know how Vista may be interfering with all this, and also note that Vista isn’t supported for CS2,
There’s a discussion of this issue here:
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00KNSE

Charlie…
http://www.chocphoto.com
JJ
John Joslin
Apr 7, 2007
Among all that interesting reading is the assertion that Vista is just no good for serious colour work.

See < http://www.outbackphoto.com/tforum/viewtopic.php?TopicID=251 8>
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EightOHonE
Apr 7, 2007
You guys are completely missing the point…

This is a HARDWARE issue which I am trying to remedy with ADOBE GAMMA LOADER.

It has nothing to do with color or photoshop. I do not intend to use any CS2 software on this Vista laptop. The only reason why I installed photoshop (cs2, rob), is to check if it would properly "install" Adobe Gamma Loader. (As opposed to me just copy/pasting the files.)

Allow me to rephrase my situation, in case it was confusing at first…

I have a brand new HP Pavilion dv2210us laptop, which came preinstalled with Vista. I am not a computer n00b or an adobe n00b, but I am when it comes to Vista. Now, my problem doesnt even concern Vista itself:

My monitor (the screen attached to the laptop) has very LOW contrast. (Meaning that everything looks a bit white-washed.) There are apparently no inherent controls to adjust the monitor’s RGB, Stretch, Tilt, Rotate, and especially CONTRAST settings. There is nothing in Windows Preferences or Control Panel to do this. The only thing that I can adjust is the monitor’s BRIGHTNESS by pressing Fn+F7 or Fn+F8.

Laptop screens are not like standalone desktop CRT or LCD monitors, which have menu buttons on the front panel to make visual adjustments. There is no physical way to manually adjust a laptop’s screen properties like there is with a desktop monitor, or even a television set.

I know for a FACT that there is no way to adjust the Contrast on my laptop because I have contacted HP eMail Tech Support and was unable to get a solution from them.

So the only other (cheap) way I could think of to INCREASE my monitor’s CONTRAST was to install Adobe Gamma Loader. (I do not want to spend $100+ for one of those stupid spider-type screen calibrators. And I also do not want to RMA this laptop to exchange for another one.)

At this point some of you may be asking yourselves, "Well then why is the topic of this thread ‘Adobe Gamma Loader + Vista’ if it has nothing to do with Vista?"

Thats where you are wrong. Because this does have something to do with Vista. Just please keep in mind that it has nothing to do with photoshop…

When I boot up my laptop, Adobe Gamma Loader loads my custom .icc profile for about 10 seconds. But once Windows (Vista) has completely booted and the machine is fully up and running, the .icc profile has somehow been UNLOADED!

At that point, I have to manually click on the AdobeGammaLoader.cpl shortcut in my Startup folder.

Otherwise, I have to look at a screen that is very LOW in contrast.

Does all that make sense so far?

So my question is…

How do I get my Vista laptop to STOP UNLOADING my .icc profile?

I do not have this problem on my Windows XP laptop (which is also an HP, and also does not have a physical Contrast Adjustment setting.) So by the power of deduction, I have deduced that Vista is causing Adobe Gamma Loader to somehow unload.

And just to reiterate: This a BRAND NEW Vista laptop that I have cleaned out. Meaning that I have uninstalled all the factory crapware and bloatware that came with the system. There are no other conflicting software problems, to my knowlege. The only other graphic software on this computer is MS Paint.

Now I apologize if I may sound to be a bit condescending, but no one so far has seemed to understand my problem. I would very much appreciate any help to get this fixed. I would particularly like to hear from anyone who is running Vista and/or owns an HP laptop and/or has a poorly calibrated monitor.

Thank you
-801
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Apr 7, 2007
801,

I’m not using Vista nor do I have any idea why it is unloading your icc profile, but I’ll throw out some ideas to explore:

1) I know Vista has User Access Control (UAC). Have you explored disabling UAC to see if that affects losing the loaded ICC profile?

2) Alternatives to Adobe Gamma

(a) Windows Color Control Panel – If compatible with Vista and not already part of Vista, this can be set up in your startup folder with the /L switch on a shortcut to the executable, to load the profiles you set up in Windows Color to be the default profiles. The utility can be found at < http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1E3 3DCA0-7721-43CA-9174-7F8D429FBB9E&displaylang=en>

(b) WiziWYG – This seems to be no longer available from the manufacturer, Praxisoft, leaving me to guess it has not been updated for Vista. So, whether or not it will work with Vista, I don’t know, but it may be worth a try for both creating a profile and loading it. Here’s another download location: < http://tc.versiontracker.com/product/redir/lid/669912/wiziwy g_xp_install.zip>

3) In WinXP, the Adobe Gamma control panel applet isn’t available under the default GUI but does show up if you revert to the classic GUI. I don’t expect that to affect maintaining a loaded profile once Adobe Gamma Loader is put into the startup folder, but it is easy enough to explore. You might try setting up Vista’s start menu to the classic Windows GUI (assuming this feature is retained in Vista) and see if that makes any difference.

Good luck,

Daryl
CC
Charlie_Choc
Apr 7, 2007
I assume you have already tried going into control panel/color management and changing the system default to your Adobe Gamma profile? Other than that I have no idea – I use a Spyder2 to calibrate my monitors under Vista and it seems to work fine, but my system default is the Spyder2 created profile. —
Charlie…
http://www.chocphoto.com
E
EightOHonE
Apr 8, 2007
Daryl, thank you so much for all your efforts. It is most appreciated.

To answer your suggestions…

1) Yes, I have already disabled that. Its a pain in the neck. I have no idea how MS can label that as a "feature". haha.

2a) I thought this would be the answer, but unfortunately it won’t install on Vista. Its quite old too, release date 10/31/2005. I looked for a newer Vista version, but there isn’t one.

2b) I tried installing this one upon your suggestion, but this too is also incompatible with Vista.

3) Yes, I have also reverted back to the classic menu style. Though I dont believe this would make a difference.

I’ll try looking for a few more alternatives.
Again, thank you very much for your help.

-801
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Apr 8, 2007
801,

Oops…I missed one…a loader that is. While not a gamma loader for the startup menu, GretagMacbeth’s DisplayProfile tool can be used to activate a profile "on the fly". With the CRT connected to your laptop, dragging the DisplayProfile window between the two screens should also show the profile updated relative to the screen you’re on. I’ve no idea if loading a profile with it will do anything different such that the profile is kept until you change it or shut down your laptop, but again, it’s just one more option to try. < http://www.gretagmacbeth.com/downloads/displayprofile-en.zip>

Regards,

Daryl
A
Ashish
May 15, 2007
can any one tell Adobe Gamma loader,Adobe Photoshop 5.5,Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 works with vista
BL
Bob Levine
May 15, 2007
PS 7 maybe, 5.5 complete crapshoot.

In short, only CS3 is fully supported under Vista.

Bob
J
japchap
Jul 13, 2007
I’ve been having a very similar problem with Windows Vista and Adobe Gamma. Despite the fact that I had Adobe Gamma in my Startup folder and had administrative access to that folder on bootup, whenever I ran certain applications, such as MS Outlook 2007, suddenly Adobe Gamma would get unloaded, and the whole gamma profile would get shot to heck. I would have to actually run the Adobe Gamma control panel applet again to reset the gamma for the monitor.

I’ve tried to disable Adobe Gamma from running by removing it from the Startup folder, and then installed QuickGamma, currently available as freeware at Softpedia.com. I wonder, though, if these boot loader gamma fix apps are really doing their job in Vista…

Jeff
LV
Louise_Vessey
Jul 29, 2007
Sorry no help here but I am experiencing the exact same issues with my new HP computer loaded with Vista. Adobe Gamma settings disappear each time my machine even goes into screen saver mode!! So each time I sit down to work I have to redo the Gamma. I am using Photoshop CS. Wondering if upgrading to CS3 will help me with this issue. Or is there another solution.
BL
Bob Levine
Jul 29, 2007
CS and Gamma are unsupported in Vista. CS3 doesn’t even ship with Gamma.

Bob
LV
Louise_Vessey
Jul 29, 2007
So what is a good colour calibration alternative? Have tried the MacBeth Eye One with no luck at all (using Samsung LCD monitors). I am a professional photographer so this is quite an issue for me.
BL
Bob Levine
Jul 29, 2007
I have an EyeOne and love it. Problem is that it too has no support under Vista. Check out the Spyder 2.

Bob
I
ID._Awe
Jul 29, 2007
I bought Monaco EZcolor recently, only to find out that it has been discontinued, but they did an update for Vistax64, woo-hoo!
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Jul 30, 2007
ID,

Likewise, there is also an EZColor 2.6.5 (4/30/2007) < http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?Industry=1&Se gment=5&ID=592&Action=Support&SoftwareID=625> update for the 32-bit Windows Vista.

Daryl
I
ID._Awe
Jul 30, 2007
Which just goes to show that some companies still care about the consumer without excuse. This update is for both 32 & 64. How cool is that!
FN
Fred_Nirque
Jul 30, 2007
Does your laptop have a graphics properties icon in the taskbar? (if it’s an Intel with onboard graphics it will have, and even if it’s got a separate video card it should have something similar).

Open that and go to the colour correction/management/adjustment/(whatever) window. Hopefully you’ll have a display with a graphic display of a contrast & brightness curve. Adjust this either as individual RGB curves or "all" to increase/decrease contrast, brightness and/or gamma until your display has the contrast you prefer.

Save the setting and set it to auto-load if that’s an option.

Here’s what makes my Asus laptop with onboard Intel graphics look good (the default screen was too contrasty and too blue):

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=19hlDvTRSLUc5FpcwD iVnyw2aLB1>
CC
Charlie_Choc
Jul 30, 2007
You might be able to get Gamma to work under Vista by saving the ICC profile you create with Gamma and then go into Vista color management, add the profile you created to the profiles associated with your monitor, and then set it to the default. I believe these were the steps that were added to make colorimeter software Vista compatible.

Charlie…
http://www.chocphoto.com
J
japchap
Jul 30, 2007
I get the feeling that we need to get our issues straight here in this thread.

Adobe Gamma DOES work under Vista (my own experience).
Some users are arguing that it "shouldn’t" be used on Vista (which is a valid argument, from the manufacturer’s POV, anyway), but the applet will run on Vista Home Premium, and it DOES function.

So, the issue is NOT whether it will run or is supposed to be run. The problem lies in what happens with the settings that
users make in the Adobe Gamma applet in Windows Vista,
after the applet is closed and various applications run on Vista.

The findings on this thread from several users seem to be that even following the steps that Charlie Choc mentioned above (associating the Adobe Gamma color profile as Vista’s default color management profile), Adobe Gamma gets summarily shoved off (and told to take a hike!) by Vista in no uncertain terms at key points in time, for instance when the Vista application permissions prompt comes up, or Outlook 2007 runs.

Apparently, at these points in time, Vista is kicking out Adobe Gamma’s settings and just defaulting to the graphics card settings, from what it looks like. The problem is that this is causing major color profile headaches and a lot of trouble for many users who depend on a stable monitor color profile in their work. It forces people who run older Adobe apps on Vista (like Photoshop 7, for instance, which in fact basically can and does run on Vista,
I found) to manually reset their color profile frequently during their work, which is an annoying and unproductive nuisance.

Some users in this thread have just suggested that we all stay away from Vista for proper monitor color management, and avoid using Adobe Gamma on Vista. Others have recommended somewhat less costly options like third-party monitor calibration tools and apps, but I really sense a lack of confidence in many users here as to whether this stuff really works on Vista or not as it should; and whether trouble-free monitor color calibration is to be had in the current build of Vista or not.

Other people have suggested that manufacturers of color
management products that previously worked with XP have
created fixes that now work with Vista. That’s nice, but some of these cost good money to begin with (some costing a few hundred dollars), and it’s STILL not terribly clear to me whether Vista
will not just summarily cancel out those settings when the screen partially blacks out during Vista software permission dialog checks, or when certain applications like Outlook 2007 (among others, I am sure) forcibly reset the color management profile or refresh the screen for their own purposes anyway.

Adobe Gamma is indeed an "outdated" applet, but I found it to be a simple and user-friendly method of calibrating the screen for Windows versions prior to Vista. It came bundled with Photoshop for a while, and I kept using it because it was a lot more intuitive than the Intel graphic card color settings, I found.

So given this, the issue is: what’s the best and most reliable way to calibrate monitor settings and color profiles in Vista, AND make sure that they stay that way?
BM
Bob_Manjoney
Aug 23, 2007
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you may already have the NVIDIA control panel installed, and that has its own color management as well – this could be the culprit that "takes over" the Adobe Gamma Loader’s profile.
ZL
zomb_last
Oct 24, 2007
I tried this solutions, seems to be working all right
<http://www.xpwindowsvista.com/vista-gamma-display.asp>
L
LeighP
May 17, 2008
Don’t know if this has been solved yet but I have a similar problem. Brand new Sony Vio running Vista. Photoshop CS2 is installed but I use a Spyder2 and ColorPlus 1.1 to callibrate my screen. Disabled Adobe Gamma in "Startup" and find that my Colorplus profile (which makes my screen look perfect) randomly gets unloaded and sends me back to my washed out screen. Bizarrely, if I go into the control panel and click on the Adobe Gamma Wizard and open it (without changing anything) it reloads the ColorPlus profile. Any ideas – before I chuck a brick through my screen please!

Kind regards

Leigh
KV
Klaas Visser
May 17, 2008
Leigh,

You wouldn’t happen to have an NVIDIA graphics card, by any chance?

I have one, in my Vista install, along with Photoshop CS2 and I am using a Spyder2Express created profile.

What happens is that the calibrated profile appears to load, but a few seconds the screen goes "back" to the un-calibrated state.

The cause is that the calibrated profile is being loaded quicker than various NVIDIA stuff is loaded, and the NVIDIA stuff overwrites the LUT loaded by the profile.

My workaround is to go to the Startup folder, and double click on the Colorvision Startup Link, which reloads the calibrated profile, and all is well.

Hope this helps,

Klaas
F
Freeagent
May 17, 2008
Even easier: start menu > run > "msconfig" > startup tab. Uncheck all nvidia startup entries.
I
ID._Awe
May 17, 2008
Don’t do above, one of the entries is the driver loader.
F
Freeagent
May 17, 2008
Don’t do above, one of the entries is the driver loader

Are you really sure about this?

I disabled all nVidia startup items for this exact reason – it interfered with my Spyder profile – and I’ve seen no ill effects. I can still access the nVidia control panel either by right-clicking on the desktop or through the Windows control panel, so I assumed it would be OK. The driver is also listed with version no. when I go into properties.

In fact, the only difference I noticed was that it no longer dumped an icon in the systray.

But maybe I missed something, and if so I’m all ears?
I
ID._Awe
May 18, 2008
Freeagent:

You’re right, you can disable them all, they are ‘helper’ apps.
F
Freeagent
May 18, 2008
Ok, I was a little unsure there that I might be running the monitor on the Vista driver.

I don’t understand what most of these startup entries really do, except fill up the systray. I’ve disabled pretty much everything – all I have is antivirus, Defender, Spyder, mouse driver (otherwise customised buttons don’t work) and Speedfan to keep an eye on temperatures. That’s five out of 25 or so that *wants* to be there, but everything (on both my machines) is 100% functional.
K
Kimmik
May 23, 2008
schreef in bericht
Don’t know if this has been solved yet but I have a similar problem. Brand new Sony Vio running Vista. Photoshop CS2 is installed but I use a Spyder2 and ColorPlus 1.1 to callibrate my screen. Disabled Adobe Gamma in "Startup" and find that my Colorplus profile (which makes my screen look perfect) randomly gets unloaded and sends me back to my washed out screen. Bizarrely, if I go into the control panel and click on the Adobe Gamma Wizard and open it (without changing anything) it reloads the ColorPlus profile. Any ideas – before I chuck a brick through my screen please!
Kind regards

Leigh

Uninstall you’re Adobe gamma Loader

Kimmik
M
mesa
May 24, 2008
Kimmik wrote:

schreef in bericht

Don’t know if this has been solved yet but I have a similar problem. Brand new Sony Vio running Vista. Photoshop CS2 is installed but I use a Spyder2 and ColorPlus 1.1 to callibrate my screen. Disabled Adobe Gamma in "Startup" and find that my Colorplus profile (which makes my screen look perfect) randomly gets unloaded and sends me back to my washed out screen. Bizarrely, if I go into the control panel and click on the Adobe Gamma Wizard and open it (without changing anything) it reloads the ColorPlus profile. Any ideas – before I chuck a brick through my screen please!
Kind regards

Leigh

Uninstall you’re Adobe gamma Loader

Kimmik

You could always use the gamma adjustment/loader which comes with the video card.

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