No personal experience here, but this is discussion from the photo.net forum might be helpful (at least, parts of it):

http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00TpzN?unified_p=1

I have been following the development reports on Windows 7 on Cnet and ZDnet every day, and so far there is little indication the Vista problem with User Account pop-up window alerts interfering with display calibration has been fixed in 7, but apparently with 7 you can shut off User Account alerts - but is that a good security solution?

The interesting thing is that in all the daily reports on Windows 7 I have read over almost a year now there was no mention at all of digital photography. Apparently Microsoft doesn't care nor do the people who follow Windows computing most closely.

I'm glad I'm not the only one annoyed by the Vista security alert pop-up. I usually just wait until until it happens, then exit Security Alert from the toolbar. It's good to know Windows 7 gives you an option to turn it off altogether.

I don't really see a danger in turning Security Alert off, as long as you have robust third-party security software like McAfee covering the same areas.

Bill,

Are you aware that after booting up when the first User Account pop-up alert windows appears it DISABLES your display calibration, and a result of that is ALL color management functions, like Photoshop's color management no longer works? And that the ONLY thing you can do to restore color management functioning is to re-boot your system?

Hmmm - strange! I would have expected a color shift if that happened. I'll check it out. Thanks for the heads up, David.

By the way - fortunately, it's my wife's computer. I'm still running XP......

Bill, It is sometimes not that "visible" a difference, but it does screw up color managed printing seriously.

Yes, stick with XP, at least until we see what Google's just announced new operating system Chrome will do. Fun to see Microsoft get some competition!

Thanks for the input. I'll keep an eye on things as they develop with Microsoft.

Bill, thanks for the link. I checked it out and read that some of testers said it worked well with photoshop. I'll wait till I see more data from more people before I make any changes to my OS.

From what I've seen so far, Windows 7 looks to be a big improvement over Vista (but then, just about anything would be). But there's no clear indication that it's better than XP, especially on older machines like mine. One thing you might look at: Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta. You can download it from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...;displaylang=en

It will tell you whether your computer can handle Windows 7 and what software is incompatible with it. My machine is basically OK, but I found several software collisiona......

Quote:
Bill,

Are you aware that after booting up when the first User Account pop-up alert windows appears it DISABLES your display calibration, and a result of that is ALL color management functions, like Photoshop's color management no longer works? And that the ONLY thing you can do to restore color management functioning is to re-boot your system?

Obviously I've not kept up with the newer functions of Vista and Window 7. What does "Are you aware that after booting up when the first User Account pop-up alert windows" mean? Hope this is not too "dumb" a question.

Alan, I think this is a Vista issue only (hopefully not repeated in Windows 7). "User Account" is the Vista version of Windows XP's "Security Center". The problem with it is that it keeps popping up to tell you that you need to check your settings, even when you have it turned off. There are a lot of security items, like firewall and malware protection, that are better covered in good third-party software like McAfee, and you don't want or need Windows running the same procedure. Windows Vista, unfortunately, doesn't recognize that you have other security software and keeps bugging you. To be fair, all you have to do is close out the User Account icon in the toolbar and it goes away for the rest of the session. But, apparently it disables your monitor calibration profile in the process.

Hopefully, Windows 7 will fix all the things in Windows Vista that "fixed" all the things in Windows XP that weren't broken. Hope that makes sense.....