How do I calibrate my monitor!?!?

[cabe]

I have looked into monitor calibration quite a bit recently, and have found that while there are basic tools like Adobe Gamma and expensive software suites that come with colorimeters, there isn't much in between. I don't have a professional colorimeter, nor the spare cash to shell out for one, so what I've used is this:
http://www.hex2bit.com/products/product_mcw.asp

It seems to work better than Adobe Gamma, which is the only other monitor calibration I've ever used. I've got two questions:

1. Is there any better software/perceptual calibration tool out there?

-&-

2. The ICC profile that this thing creates doesn't seem to affect video, and I don't know if it affects games or not. How do I make sure that it affects everything? Is there some way to wire the ICC profile into the video card drivers so that the color calibration is applied to *everything*? (I'm more concerned with answering this one than #1)

Thanks guys!


-Chris

[BongoTrumman]

For calibration take a look here:
Tools: Screen Adjustment, Pixel Checking, Dial-in & More

[cabe]

Thanks! I checked it out, an interesting read.

Also, I've done a bit of "independant research" with BSPlayer to see which modes Monitor Calibration Wizard (MCW) affects. I also noticed that in some of the modes, black ended up as a dark gray.

MCW Y/N: Y = MCW affected video color, N = MCW did not affect video color
BLK Y/N: Y = Black was black, N = Black was dark gray

MCW BLK
-Y- -N- Internal renderer DirectDraw surface
-N- -Y- Internal renderer overlay (default)
-Y- -Y- Internal renderer RGB mode
-Y- -N- Internal renderer RGB overlay
-N- -Y- Overlay mixer
-N- -Y- VMR7
-N- -Y- VMR7 Renderless
-Y- -N- VMR9
-Y- -N- VMR9 Renderless (Mode 1)
-Y- -N- VMR9 Renderless (Mode 2)

Interestingly enough, it seems only one mode is affected by MCW's calibration AND still maintains a true black.

Thoughts?