Warning: Windows 10 update messes with system profiles?

[Malcolm Payne]

I've just experienced major difficulties colour-matching a file to a painting on my NEC SpectraView Reference 271 monitor, and on further investigation I discovered that the profiles on both that monitor and on the second screen used for Photoshop tools etc had been changed to something completely incorrect and inappropriate.

Both monitors had been previously profiled with SpectraView Profiler 5.8.1, the 271 in hardware and the other non-critical secondary screen in software, both running off a Quadro P4000.

I can only think of two possibilities that might have caused this; a recent Win 10 upgrade to v1803, or an update earlier this week to X-Rite i1Profiler v1.8.1 (XRD v30.0.17.36). I strongly suspect the Win10 upgrade as the culprit, as the X-Rite profile loader is disabled and I have a vague recollection of something similar happening once before with a previous Win 10 upgrade.

In neither case was there any outward indication of the profiles having been changed, the only warning sign that something was awry being a seriously incorrect soft-proof on the reference monitor.

Has anyone else seen anything like this, or has any other explanation? There's no excuse for Windows updates screwing with system profiles under any circumstances, but it might in any case be a useful precaution to check the profiles immediately after any such updates.

Thanks,

Malcolm

[narikin]

Thanks for informing. I would not be so quick to dismiss x-rite as a culprit, they are notorious for releasing buggy programs/ broken updates.
If it's as big an issue as you say, and down to Windows, then there should be a slew of similar complaints soon, so let's keep an eye on Google.

thanks

[TonyW]

No such experience with Win 10 64 bit (recent upgrade to v1803) using an Eizo CS240 profiled by the Eizo Navigator software using an i1 Display Pro.  The Windows Color Management Dialogue shows that the correct profile is in use as specified by the Eizo application.

I really think it improbable that Windows upgrade would actually touch colour management and if it did defaults would be left as is rather than changed - as a matter of interest what was the incorrect/inappropriate profile?

I cannot comment on the X-Rite software, it could be this or some other application screwing with your system

[Doug Gray]

No such experience with Win 10 64 bit (recent upgrade to v1803) using an Eizo CS240 profiled by the Eizo Navigator software using an i1 Display Pro.  The Windows Color Management Dialogue shows that the correct profile is in use as specified by the Eizo application.

I really think it improbable that Windows upgrade would actually touch colour management and if it did defaults would be left as is rather than changed - as a matter of interest what was the incorrect/inappropriate profile?

I cannot comment on the X-Rite software, it could be this or some other application screwing with your system

Same here. While X-Rite software in loaded on my system I use ColorNavigator and have never encountered issues on the frequent Win10 upgrades.

[Malcolm Payne]

Thanks, guys.

I have found a number of internet reports of various display settings being changed after a Win 10 upgrade, so there is a potential problem though not necessarily widespread.

The main monitor (SV271) had been reset to PA271 (n271w.icm), the NEC default profile supplied with the monitor. Further digging into the depths of the Win 10 colour management settings showed n271.icm listed under 'Profiles associated with this device' along with the correct SV profile. The default profile in that dialog box was set as n271.icm (though not by me).

In normal use the active profile is loaded by the SpectraView LUT loader which should presumably override the WCM setting.

I am still inclined to suspect the Win 10 upgrade for the change as it was a major version change and I would have thought it improbable that any of the other potential software updates (nvidia drivers, Spectraview or i1Profiler) would have reset the default profile to one that has never been used. Of those three other possibilities, only i1Profiler has had a recent update (I do know that X-Rite software can be more than a little squirrelly at times).

I am now uncertain about the originally reported profile change for the second monitor; I had thought originally that it had become reset to one of the SV271 profiles, but the major parts of the profile names are similar, so I could have been mistaken.

The cause remains unresolved for the moment, but it's probably worth keeping an eye out for any future recurrence.

Malcolm

[Ethan Hansen]

Malcolm: I suspect that Windows updates indeed can mess about with profiles and other user-specific info. One of my coworkers had a raft of customizations reset after a recent update - not only to color profiles but in Office apps, etc. as well. My laptop had the same wonkiness to Office but not the color settings. The only differences we found were that on my laptop, I set the default profile at a system level while my coworker had hers at the user level (in the Windows Color Management dialog, the "Use my settings for this device" box was ticked). None of our other Windows boxes had similar issues, so I can't say with surety that this is the solution.

Edit: It's worth noting that i1Profiler enables individual, account-level color settings for each monitor profiled. Changing to system level profiles requires diving into the Color Management dialog after each run of i1P. An advantage to using system level profiles is that the calibrations remain consistent even when multiple users share the same computer. Just be sure to enable Windows management of color profiles rather than using XRGamma.

[Malcolm Payne]

Thanks, Ethan. At least that tends to confirm that I wasn't imagining it, though any unwanted changes appear to be both unpredictable and somewhat random in their consequences.

I had an occurrence once before with i1Profiler, possibly with a new installation, where it installed its own profile loader without asking and loaded its default profile over the top of the correct one. But I don't use i1 for monitor profiling - I use SpectraView for both monitors - and both the i1 Calibration Loader and the i1ProfilerTray app are disabled in start-up and had remained so when I discovered the problem in the OP.

The worst thing is that there is no outward indication that anything has changed unless the profiles are sufficiently different that the variations are visually obvious or you explicitly check that the correct system profile is loaded. It only became clear in this instance that something was wrong when I had soft-proofed the image for repro to the original painting and was surprised when the confirmation hard-proof was significantly off. Fortunately only two jobs were affected - I hadn't hard-proofed the second one at the time - and both were retrievable.

Anyway, just a heads-up really to check system settings and profiles directly after any similar updates in case it saves anyone else from potentially getting caught in the same trap.

Malcolm