Under some circumstances, Windows Vista will disable the active ICC monitor profile, especially when the profile has been set using third party software. Apparently this is due to a bug which is triggered by the annoying User Account Control dialogue "Is this ok," which dims the screen, which then apparently also disables a software-set ICC profile.

Here are three ways which the color management display ICC problem can be fixed in Vista.

(1) The cognoscenti turn off the Vista User Account Controls completely.  There are many blog posts on how to turn this off.  With User Account Controls off, there will never be an annoying "is this ok" dialog box, thus there will never be a screen dim, and thus there will never be the trigger for the bug.

(2) Apply the fix provided by Microsoft at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951537/en-us.  Note: this fix was located by following the link to http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/Vista%27s_New_Color_Management_System_-_WCS, which was found in the article by David Brooks located here http://www.shutterbug.net/equipmentreviews/software_computers/0607microsoft/index1.html. 

(3) Do not rely on any third party software to set the default color profile.  Have your color management software create an ICC profile.  Copy the ICC file to c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers.  From => personalization => display settings => select the monitor => advanced settings => color management => color management => add => add your icc profile => select your icc profile => click set as default profile.  In this manner, you will be directly setting the default monitor profile.  This feature existed in xp, vista, and windows 7.  The following post explains how this feature works in windows 7: http://www.slagermanphoto.com/blog/2010/09/22/windows-color-management-solution/

ANY of the above three solutions will fix the "bug."  Doing all three will expand your changes of correct results. 

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