Sorry I'm on my phone travelling back from Cornwall to London (boo hoo) so I can't tell properly. I never trust my phone when commenting on sharpness or detail. I can't argue with you about the 600 at f4 as I've never tried one, but I'm sure it's as sharp if not sharper than my 500 at f4 so I dont think that would be the issue! I'd be interested in seeing how someone like the guy who posted the shrike the other day processes (and the original actually) as that came from a tamron 150-600 from memory and was as pin sharp as I've ever seen!
Regarding printing I'm not an expert so can't say but yeah a supermarket print is never going to give good results.
The config thing won't work on a Mac possibly so I can't help there sorry.