Windows 10: Windows Photo Viewer shows images too dark after monitor calibration!

The Windows Photo Viewer was perfect for me in Windows 7 so I got it working on Windows 10, too. The new Photos software that came with Windows 10 is useless to me because it doesn't zoom, at lease I can't figure out how as of yet. I just want to keep things simple with the Windows Photo Viewer.

All was OK until I calibrated my monitors & at about the same time there was a Windows update. After calibration the monitors looked much better. But when I opened the Windows Photo Viewer I noticed all photos looked extremely dark. All other photo viewing software shows the same photos normal. I just assumed it was the Windows update that caused this but it wasn't that.

Today I have figured it out that the problem is Windows Photo Viewer software is somehow clashing with my monitor color profile. If I remove the .icc profile, the photos look normal using Windows Photo Viewer. Once the monitor profile is returned, they go back to too dark. As I said, other photo viewing software is not affected by this profile, just Windows Photo Viewer.

I don't have a clue how to fix this other than returning to the default profile which would wreck my Photoshop business. It just seem odd that the color profile only effects the Windows Photo Viewer this way & not other programs.

Any ideas how to fix this?

:)

 

Windows 10 Photo App not taking into account ICC color profiles

Can anyone else confirm the Windows 10 Photo Viewer app doesn't take into account the monitor device ICC color profile? I calibrated my Windows 10 laptop using Spyder5Express and the colors look completely different in the Photo Viewer than other color-aware
programs like Photoshop, Irfanview, or Canon's Digital Photo Professional. I seem to recall Windows 7 Photo Viewer rendered image colors correctly.

 

Colors in new Windows Photo Viewer (Windows 10) are not correct

I've seen similar problem descriptions for Windows 7 and 8, but the solutions do not seem to work for me. I calibrated my monitor using Xrite Photo Munki, and colors look great in Lightroom and Photoshop. However, when looking at same images in the Windows
Photo Viewer, the colors are all off. They appear to be over-saturated, and are often too much on the reddish side. I took the images to my system at work (still on Windows 7) and they look just fine.

Display settings are marked for my monitor, "Use my setting for this device." (Interestingly, the monitor is not identified by name (as in Windows 7 and 8), but as a generic pnp monitor. However, NVIDIA control panel sees the monitor correctly. (I doubt
this is an issue).

Any suggestions? Is there anyway to get the old Windows Photo Viewer. I do like the black background of this one, but the colors are just way off.

 

I don't exactly know what do you require of Photo Viewer besides the Zoom feature.

Would you care to have a look at Picpick which is duped as "poor-man's SnagIt" ?
I use it for more than 3 years. All my screenshots are done with Picpick.
PicPick - von NGWIN, Alles-in-Einem Zeichenwerkzeug: Bildschirmfotos, Bildbearbeitung, Farbwähler, Pixel-Lineal und mehr

Select the Free Download first.
If you really like it, you can buy the paid version later.

 

Zoom feature is exactly why I require Windows Photo Viewer. As I said in my post, I use Photoshop in my business. Windows Photo Viewer's zoom feature provides a simple closeup to reveal jpeg artifacts, etc. True, this can be done in Photoshop, but I prefer a lower quality viewer that is more likely to reveal these artifacts. If it passes the Windows Photo Viewer test I know were good.

 

I understand what you said in your 1st post.
In case you did not notice........................
My picpick screenshot shows the Zoom In or Out feature.
That is why I suggested it to you.

My point is........ see if picpick's zoom feature will work ok even after change of monitor calibration.

 

Should you decide to give Picpick a try, please post back your verdict.

 

First, I do appreciate you offering to help, OK? And, I did notice. What I noticed in you post was "I don't exactly know what do you require of Photo Viewer besides the Zoom feature." So, I explained.

The whole point of my post was curiosity of why Windows Photo Viewer doesn't adapt to color profiles as it should & if I missed a setting of some sort to correct it. Windows Photo Viewer worked perfectly in Win 7 using the same color calibration software. In Win 10 every other program works perfectly except for Windows Photo Viewer. Perhaps MS is no longer supporting Windows Photo Viewer.

I did try PicPick but also a program from the Windows Store called 123 Photo Viewer which I preferred over PicPick.

 

I have an answer & it deals with my calibration software, X-Rite!

Between calibrating while on Windows 7 & now on Windows 10, X-Rite upgraded their software. The older version offered ICC Color Profile v2 only while the newer version offers ICC Color Profile v4 as the default & ICC Color Profile v2 as an option. Window Photo Viewer apparently is obsolete & Microsoft has not upgraded the software to adapt to ICC Color Profile v4 standards & apparently never will.

To check this theory, I recalibrated my monitor to ICC Color Profile v2. Sure enough Window Photo Viewer works as it should now.

Will I keep my monitors calibrate to ICC Color Profile v2? No. My work is with software that has changed to the new international standard of ICC Color Profile v4 so I will stay with that. 123 Photo Viewer fits my needs plus there's plenty of other programs as well that wont require going backwards to old standards.

*Thumbs

 

That worked for me, too! Thank you, GARoss, that's been irritating me for a while. 123 Photo Viewer did the trick!

 

The Photos app is actually quite good. It does have a zoom function - use the +/- buttons on the lower rhs of the screen. Photo Viewer has some limitations e.g. it can't display my Panasonic RAW images. I have various image viewing programs and find the Photo App quick and simple. I have my own monitor calibration and have no display issues with either program.