[ad]Dear Computer Lady,
I am having problems with the paint program that is included with windows 8.1. Whenever I try to edit a picture pixel by pixel I get an error that says “there is not enough memory to continue. Try closing some other programs and try again.”
There are no other programs running but the paint program keeps freezing. I have noticed that the paint program in Windows XP only allowed users to undo up to five previous changes and the new paint program allows you to undo 50 or more changes. I feel like the software is using tons of memory to remember this many changes and is the cause of the problem. I currently have 16 gigabytes of ram in my new hp Pavilion computer. My old hp computer only had 4 gigabytes of ram and never froze up. I have been in touch with Microsoft and they said there is something wrong with my computer. I have tried to do the same editing on 3 other hp computers and a dell computer and they all freeze up the same way. All of the other computers are also running windows 8.1. I really want to continue to use paint to make these changes to my pictures because the software is so easy to use. How do you go about convincing a company like Microsoft that they actually messed up a good running software program and to change it back the way it was?
Thank you, David
Dear David,
I don’t have a way to convince Microsoft to change a program, but since I loved the way you described your problem with so much detail, I want to try and see if I can help you editing your pictures.
First, I played around with Paint on my Windows 8.1 computer, but was unable to duplicate your problem. Possibly because my images were not a large a file size as yours.
Next, I looked for a way to change the number of available changes that can be undone, but there were no options to change that.
Since I had hit a dead end with getting Paint to behave, I started to think about alternative programs that you might be able to use instead of Paint. There are lots of programs out there, but many of them like Gimp, Picasa, Paint.net and others are a bit more complex and you like how easy it is to use Paint.
While I was thinking about other image programs, I remembered Irfanview. I have been using this free image program for more years than I can remember, and the main reason I use it is because it is fast and does not use a lot of resources. In fact, I find Irfanview so useful that it is always one of the first programs that I install on any new computer of mine.
When you open an image in Irfanview, you can click on “Edit” in the menu bar, then click on, “Show Paint Dialog” to display and use a toolbar with the same type of, easy to use, tools that are available in the Paint program.
You can download Irfanview at www.irfanview.com
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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