Datacolor User to User Support Group.

OK, sorry for posting 5 times in a raw but I think I figured it out.
I'd like to have some expert input on this as well - most of this
thread was discussing OS ideosincrasies that don't directly affect
color matching (as opposed to properly using profiles in colormanaged
applications).

This assumes you have identical or similar monitors and are trying to
match the colors on them as much as you can:

First you would calibrate both monitors and chose the one you like. 

If the whitepoints seem off on both of them (like, they seem too
yellow or whatever) try recalibrating both to a known whitepoint
(6500K) and see if it looks better to you. At this point your monitors
may look close enough to just leave it at that. However I assume if
you work with LCDs having at least one of them calibrated to Native WP
should have some advantages so in this case you'd keep calibrating.

After calibration you have an option to File/Validate - essentially it
measures the resulting output and compares to the Target output. You
can go ahead and do it and then print it out if you want - it's an
informative printout.

Then chose the monitor you don't like and go and load Target
(File>Open Target). Navigate to where the profile for the first
monitor is stored (in XP C:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\color ...
whatever your first monitor profile is named). Load it as a target and
go through the process - it will include tedious monitor RGB and
Brightness (backlight) controls manipulations.

After it's done your monitors are supposed to look very close. Do the
Validate thing to compare the printouts. If all went well they should
be really close.

Most people would be done at this point. Colorvision loader will load
profiles on startup.

Now the unfortunate Windows XP AGP card users like myself will only
have one profile used by the OS and it will be evident after you
RESTART your system. So what was the point, right? A half-baked
solution is an LUT loader that comes with a freely downloadable
Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet. You would want to install it
before calibration. Then add a shortcut with an /L extention to your
All Users Startup folder
"C:\Program Files\Pro Imaging Powertoys\Microsoft Color Control Panel
Applet for Windows XP\WinColor.exe" /L. And remove the
Colorvisionstartup.exe from there (and Adobe Gamma and whatever else
could attempt to manage color). The loader will only adjust colors on
your respective monitors (/L stands for Load LUTs) without actually
achieving a fully colormanaged worflow (like, Photoshop will only see
one profile).

I wish somebody more professional than myself wrote this.

Hope this helps - feel free to correct me.