Microsoft KB Archive/873296

= You receive an &quot;Unable to create dialog&quot; error message when you open or change images in Picture It! Digital Image Pro =

Article ID: 873296

Article Last Modified on 2/6/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Picture It! Digital Image Pro 7.0
 * Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9
 * Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9
 * Microsoft Picture It! Digital Image Pro 7.0

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SYMPTOMS
When you open one or more images or when you change an image in Microsoft Picture It! Digital Image Pro, you may receive the following error message:

Unable to create dialog

The program may also stop responding, and the image files that you were editing may become damaged.



CAUSE
This problem may occur when you use Picture It! Digital Image Pro to modify a large image or to open two or more large images at the same time. Using Picture It! Digital Image Pro in this way causes the program to use all the system resources and memory.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Optimize virtual memory use
To work around this problem, adjust the virtual memory settings. Follow the steps for your operating system.

Note Unless you are an advanced user, we recommend that you let Microsoft Windows manage the virtual memory settings. These settings are located on the Advanced tab of the Performance Options dialog box that you open from the System Properties dialog box. We recommend that you use the default virtual memory settings whenever possible.

Microsoft Windows XP

 * 1) Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.
 * 2) Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance. The Performance Options dialog box opens.
 * 3) On the Advanced tab, click Change under Virtual memory.
 * 4) Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
 * 5) Under Paging file size for selected drive, click to select the System managed size check box, and then click Set.
 * 6) Click OK three times.

When you are prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.

Microsoft Windows 2000

 * 1) Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
 * 2) Double-click System.
 * 3) On the Advanced tab, click Performance Options.
 * 4) Click Change.
 * 5) Select the drive that you want to use to store the paging file.
 * 6) Increase the value for Maximum size (MB).

For the initial size, we recommend that you use the Recommended value under Total paging file size for all drives.
 * 1) Click Set, and then click OK three times.
 * 2) If you are prompted to restart the computer, click Yes. If you are not prompted to restart the computer, click Start, and then click Shut Down.

Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) and Microsoft Windows 98
 Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. Double-click System. On the Performance tab, click Virtual Memory. Click to select the following check box:

'''Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings. (Recommended)'''

 Click OK. If you are prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.</li></ol>

Method 2: Save and then close image files
To work around this problem, you must save, close, and then reopen the image file every 15 to 30 minutes. Saving the file does not clear the computer memory. You have to save and then close the image file to clear the computer memory. The time interval depends on the size of the image file and the number of changes that you make to the image file. Saving the image file flattens the image and removes the ability to undo the changes that you made to the file. Text that you add to a JPEG-formatted image cannot be changed after you save and then close the image file. However, PNG-formatted images are not flattened, and you can undo changes that you make.

We recommend that you work with a copy of an image and not with the original so that you can revert to the original if you have to. To make a copy of the image file, open the original image, click Save as on the File menu, and then save the file by using a new name. Or, save the image file to a different folder. You can create a work-in-progress folder on your hard disk and then save the copies in that folder.

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MORE INFORMATION
The memory requirements for Microsoft Picture It! Digital Image Pro 2003 are 256 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM). The recommended amount of RAM is 512 MB.

Understanding the paging file
Picture It! Digital Image Pro 2003 does not limit the number of times that you can undo or redo changes that you make. However, this feature may exhaust the system resources quickly because the feature saves lots of information in the RAM and in the paging file. For every change that you make, the program saves a copy of the image in the paging file so that the program can revert to that state of the image if you click Undo. For example, if you are editing a 1-MB picture, every time that you make a change, the program uses an additional 1 MB of memory. Your changes could eventually fill up the paging file. Larger image files fill up the paging file more quickly. To free the RAM that is used and to reduce the space that is used by the paging file, save and then close the file. Saving the file, or saving the file by using a different file name, does not release the memory because the program still stores the changes.

Understanding and configuring virtual memory
With virtual memory, a program sees a large continuous block RAM. This block of RAM is supplemented by secondary memory that is provided by a hard disk or other storage device. To temporarily free space in RAM, blocks of data (pages) are moved between RAM and a paging file that is located on the hard disk.

By default, the Microsoft Windows paging file is dynamic. Therefore, the paging file changes size based on available disk space and the operations that you perform on the computer. The paging file also can occupy a fragmented region of the hard disk with no significant performance penalty. A dynamic paging file is generally the most efficient use of resources. The simplest way to guarantee high virtual memory performance is to make sure that the disk that contains the paging file has ample free space. Ample free space lets the paging file become larger or smaller as needed.

In some earlier versions of Windows, users frequently improved performance by changing virtual memory settings. However, because the Windows paging file is dynamic, users do not change the virtual memory settings as frequently as before. However, sometimes you can improve performance by adjusting the virtual memory settings. If you already deleted unnecessary files to improve performance and you still have a performance problem, you can try changing the Windows default virtual memory settings.

If more than one drive is available, your computer may perform better if you configure Windows to locate the paging file on a drive that is different from the default drive in the following cases:
 * The default drive does not have much free disk space, and another local drive has more space available.
 * Another local drive is available that is faster than the current drive, unless that disk is already heavily used.

Your computer also may perform better if you set the minimum disk space that is available for virtual memory to two times the size of the available RAM. For example, if a computer has 256 MB of RAM, specify at least 512 MB of virtual memory. You may want to specify more if you want to run several large programs at the same time.

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