How do you turn off Adobe Gamma on a PC?

I have a PC w/ a Spyder, Optical & a LaCie monitor. How do I make

sure that Adobe Gamma is deactivated and is not screwing with the

calibration that I'm manually doing?

 

Thanks

Various means. One common way to temporarily disable programs that run in the background, is this (assuming Windpws XP, Win2000 is similar if not identical):

 

Launch the system utility MSCONFIG.exe. You can do so by clicking "Start" - "Run" , type in MSCONFIG.EXE, click "OK".

 

On the resulting dialog box, go to the "START" tab. This is a partial list of programs loading upon reboot of the PC.

 

Uncheck the box for "Adobe Gamma Loader".

 

Re-boot. PC will start up *without* AdobeGamma. There should also be an alert that some of your startup programs are disabled.

 

Windows has many sneaky ways to launch programs in background, with or without your knwoledge. Fortunately, AdobeGammaLoader is "out in the open", realtively speaking.

Oops, minor typo. Where I wrote:

 

"On the resulting dialog box, go to the "START" tab. This is a partial list of programs loading upon reboot of the PC."

 

It should read the "START UP" tab of the dialog box.

Adobe Gamma is actualy only loaded because it is in the "Start Up" folder of the start meny. To remove it, simply go:

 

Start > Programs > Start Up

 

Right click on "Adobe Gamma Loader" and select delete.

Note that deleting the shortcut link in the STARTUP folder permanently disables AdobeGammaLoader from loading.

 

To restablish AdobeGamma loading again, One would have to:

 

- locate the target AdobeGamma executable and create a new shortcut link in the Startup folder, or

 

- restore the deleted link from the Recycle Bin.

 

That's why I prefer disabling in MSCONFIG instead .. but it's Po-tay-toes vs Po-tah-toes

 

:) :)

True, but once you have a Spyder, why would you ever want Adobe Gamma loader back!? :)

Ahhh, yes.

 

Does the Spyder install its own equivalent "gamma loader"??

 

I am unfamiliar with its software.

<p><i>Does the Spyder install its own equivalent "gamma loader"?? </i></p>

<p>Yes.</p>

I don't believe that the Spyder/Optical has anything like the Gamma Loader. The thing to know about the gamma loader is that it is completely unneccesary. The monitor profile needs to be in a specific location and Windows looks there for it. You can see this profile in the monitor control panel (settings/advanced/color management. The gamma loader just resets this to the Adobe Gamma generated profile every time the system starts up, if it's in the startup folder.

 

For this reason, there is absolutely no reason to use the method Tom suggests above. If you delete the Adobe Gamma from the startup folder, the same profile will still be used. If you use some other profile and then want to generate one with Adobe Gamma, you just run Adobe Gamma from the control panel. Using msconfig is sometimes unreliable - it's possible for applications to reactivate themselves, although I've never figured out how this happens.

I've recently come to believe that a "gamma loader"-like program is still necessary.

 

For an example, see the thread:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00B0H7

 

I was getting perplexed because defining a "default monitor profile" in "Windows Display Properties > Settings > Advanced > Color Management tab" was *NOT* modifying the behaviour of my monitor.

 

Only if Adobe Gamma Loader (or equivalent) was functioning, was my monitor getting its intending ICM profile.

 

It was explained in that thread that Windows "default monitor profile" only benefits application programs that are "ICC aware".

 

Perhaps PhotoshopCS is such a program, but Photoshop Elements 3 that I use, is NOT "ICC aware", and requires AdobeGammaLoader (or equivalent) for the monitor to display "correctly".

 

Viewing content in most other programs (eg Internet Explorer) also apaprently requires a "gamma loader" to install the correct monitor profile at bootup.

One little hint about using MSconfig to disable a program. Windows (at least 98) has one of those wonderful little "features." If a program is in the "startup" menu, and you uncheck it in MSconfig, it will move that item to a folder called "disabled startup items." If you later re-enable it, that copy will stay in place, and henceforth you will not be able to disable it from within MSCONFIG unless you remove that second copy.

To make it easy to detect whether or not you have fully disabled the loading of the default monitor profile, make a really bad profile with Adobe Gamma. Give it a lurid green cast, say, and call it adobe_green.icm. With this set as the default, it will be very obvious when you have not completely disabled the loading of it. Also, Adobe have a technical note on the subject at http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/321608.html .

Jeff (www.spirer.com) wrote:

<p><i>"I don't believe that the Spyder/Optical has anything like the Gamma Loader."</i>

<p>Jeff, you probably don't have a Spyder, because I have one and I'm sure it does. The loader sets up the colour LUT (Look Up Table) in the video card. Windows doesn't do that by itself, even though you can set an ICC profile for the monitor in Windows.

<p>I can actually see the effect when my PC is starting. About two seconds or so after the desktop appears, I can see the colours change slightly - that's what the Spyder PhotoCAL loader does.

So, after all of this debate I'm more confused than before. What's the general concensus? Which is the best method for deactivating Adobe Gamma, MSconfig or deleting it in the startup folder? At least I know how to do both now.

As the one who initially suggested disabling in MSCONFIG, and now that I better understand what your intended purpose is, my vote is to delete the AdobeGammaLoader shortcut link currently in the Startup folder.

 

MSCONFIG is more convenient if you're temporarily disabling a startup item, but you're intending to permamently disable AdobeGamma, in favor of Spyder's equivalent (which is necessary for Spyder to operate correctly).

 

You can easily recreate the Adobe startup shortcut in the future, if for example you uninstalled Spyder (for whatever reason).

Well, I've seen this suggestion before numerous times...and the question is then, would turning off the gamma be adviseable for any monitior profiling setup such as Gretag MacBeth Eye-One and Monaco Optix XR?

I read John Houghton's link and found this interesting:

Note: After you remove Adobe Gamma Loader from the StartUp folder, Adobe Gamma is still be available in the Control Panel, but its settings aren't loaded when Windows starts. Photoshop continues to use Adobe Gamma to access the monitor profile you specified.