How to remove the association between the display and a color profile when pictures are being displayed with bad color

This article describes how to remove the association between the display and a color profile in Windows Vista and in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). You may have to remove the association between the display and a color profile if a defective color profile is installed as a display profile. The Windows Live Photo Gallery Viewer respects color profiles. Therefore, defective profiles will produce unpredictable results when you view an image with a color managed application and the computer may display images incorrectly.

Some display vendors ship defective profiles that, despite being in compliance with the International Color Consortium color profile specifications, may cause unexpected or unacceptable color adjustments. To resolve a problem with a defective profile, you can either remove the association between the display and the defective display profile or you can replace the defective profile with a correct one. If you remove the association between the display and the defective display profile, the Windows Live Photo Gallery Viewer assumes a display profile of sRGB.

Note Not all the defective profiles are syntactically invalid. Some defective profiles are fully compliant with International Color Consortium color profile specifications. However, the defective profiles may contain semantic errors.

To remove the association between the display and a color profile, follow these steps:

Windows Vista

1. Click Start
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   , and then type Color Management in the Start Search box.
2. Click Color Management under Programs.
3. In the Color Management dialog box, click the Devices tab, and then click the display that is experiencing the problem. For example, click Display: Generic PnP Monitor.
4. Make sure that the Use my settings for this device check box is selected.
5. In the Profiles Associated with this Device list, remove all the profiles that are listed in the box. To remove a profile, select the profile, and then click Remove. When this process is complete, the box will be empty and all the defective profiles will have been removed.
6. Click Close.
   
   Note The default display profile association is now removed. The Windows Live Photo Gallery’s Viewer application will no longer use the defective profile and will now assume a display profile of sRGB when photos are displayed.

Windows XP

1. Click Start, click Run, type desk.cpl, and then click OK.
2. Click the Settings tab.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Click the Color Management tab.
5. In the Color profiles currently associated with this device list, remove all the profiles that are listed in the box. To remove a profile, select the profile, and then click Remove. When this process is complete, the box will be empty and all the defective profiles will have been removed.
6. Click OK two times.
   
   Note The default display profile association is now removed. The Windows Live Photo Gallery’s Viewer application will no longer use the defective profile and will now assume a display profile of sRGB when photos are displayed.