I know that this is not in your question, but you should be aware that Win7 support ends January 2020, so no more security patches and updates, and more vulnerability to viruses and the like. So in your re-configuring of things, you may want to consider switching over to Win10. It may be too much at this point to do that in addition to everything else, but I didn't want you to either spend money or time or both configuring a program and new setup in Win7 without knowing that Microsoft intends Win7's obsolescence soon.

All of that info is a tremendous help. Thanks so much!

Thanks for the info! I had not known about the "reset" button. What PP areas in LR6 do you explore to achieve the vividness, or is this just a matter of explore and experiment? I'm not reluctant to explore - the reason I ask is that some tools will affect the look of others down the line, and if you take a wrong fork in the road, you may be looking in the entire wrong room in the house without knowing it - i.e., looking in the living room for the toilet (probably not a good [or apt] analogy)

Thanks! I will try this - had not known about "reset." So much to learn...but at least it's fun and (sometimes) rewarding. Like they say about travel - "It's always either a good time or a good story!"
Kevin

There was also a nice tribute piece on him last night on PBS:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/photographer-robert-franks-lens-on-american-life

Thanks again for your willingness to share your encyclopedic knowledge and expertise. Your suggestions are a great help!

Another low-cost option that I never had fail is to use one of those plastic 10-12 apple trays with the snaps around the edges - you simply clamp the plastic tray around the pole of the bird feeder and snap the edges together so it stays in place. Simple, it works, and re-purposes the plastic tray. Squirrels can't figure it out or circumvent it, unless there's a tree branch nearby.

Thanks for your insights. Is the JPEG preview identical to the JPEG itself, or is there something about the preview that is different that might be recaptured or reproduced with post-processing in LR? (I'm not looking to avoid PP, but didn't know the content of the "loading" image, so didn't know how to try to get back to it. Thanks again for your time and expertise.

Thanks all - I was shooting both JPEG and RAW, and these were in fact the RAW files loading, but when they've loaded they're visually the same, less-vivid images as the JPEGs. I was wondering (and not articulating very well) if anyone knew how to process the images in LR to get back the vividness I was seeing, then losing, when the loading files were loaded. i.e., what adjustments to use to achieve the visual "pop" seen while loading which disappeared when loaded. The JPEG images as shot are similar to the RAW images after loading, so I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on what tools / adjustments might be explored in LR to try to recapture the "pop" I was seeing while loading. Thanks for the thoughts above, and to come...?

Hi All - I'm not sure if I can articulate this question/situation adequately, or if there is an answer, but here goes: When I load a lot of pictures into a folder on my hard drive, and then import them into Lightroom 6 (the standalone version, not CC), when I go to Library and am looking through the photos, the LR6 displays a version of the photo while it is loading the full 26MP photo to display full screen (a bubble on screen says "loading..." for about 1-2 seconds), then the final image appears to replace the one displayed while "loading" was occurring. Unfortunately, the colors in the "loading" image are more vivid, and the final image colors are more muted and flatter-appearing, and I don't like the actual image as much as the one that was shown pending loading the real image. I can punch up the brightness and vividness of the colors in the "Develop" module, but I'm wondering if there's a way to recapture the brighter and more vivid colors that are shown for a second or two in the "loading" image, as those are more exciting to look at. While the photo is loading, I think "This is a keeper," but when the actual image takes shape, it needs a lot of work. These are taken with a Nikon D300s and D750, if that makes a difference, and unfortunately, I can't post the "loading" image, because it's like a bubble that popped and never existed, except for an ephemeral second. Thanks for any thoughts on how to recreate the effects in the "loading" image or what comprises the loading image that makes it more vivid than the actual photo...

A friend of mine, Jack Gillis, author of The Car Book series and consumer expert, once told me that many consumers do 90% of their shopping and research AFTER they've bought, just to try to assure themselves that they got a good deal. It's human nature, so just skip it or reassure them and wish them well, but get a life and don't add to the eye pollution.

Thanks so much for your suggestions and expertise - I will do this.

Thanks for the solution! As a follow up, is there a simple way to correct / reverse the jumble of subfolders once that import was incorrectly done? I converted to LR 6 several months ago and was dazzled and confused by the folder/subfolder configuration created by the conversion, and don't know how to get back what I had.