How to apply color management to the Windows 7 mouse cursor?

Question

I have been using the Sypder 3 colorimiter and Datacolor Spyder3Elite software to calibrate my screen for several years now. The Sypder3 does wonders, and really improves the quality of my on-screen color representation.

There is one little annoyance, however, and I am curious if anyone else has encountered this. I calibrate my screen to a D50 white point (5000k), as it more closely matches the fine art papers I most often print on. The windows mouse cursor, however, is a very stark, bright white with a tinge of blue (7300k or so), like a glossy photo paper with copious amounts of optical brightener. I'm a little confused as to why my mouse cursor doesn't follow the white point of my monitor's color profile.

Has anyone else encountered this? Is there a way to fix it?

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate

Answer

Yes, I have a Spyder 2, and I experience the same on all screens that I have calibrated, although not as strongly as you as I calibrate to 6500K. As the mouse cursor is drawn using a hardware sprite rather than drawn as regular graphics, if the graphics hardware supports it, it's not affected by the color profile.

You might consider changing the color temperature of the monitor closer to 5000K before calibrating, if it supports it. That would make the cursor stand out less, and it would also result in a color profile that makes better use of the dynamic range of the monitor.

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