ms paint memory hog slowing everything

This is bugging the crap out of me, as this is occuring on my XP pro laptop AND my new Dell Vista with 2GB of memory. Microsoft, some how, some way, either through an update or something else, has made ms paint into a complete memory hog on BOTH my Dell Vista and my Thinkpad laptop. This did not occur before. MS paint was working fine without it hogging all the memory and freezing the machine. When you use both IE and MS paint and you open more than 2, sometimes 3 paint windows, you'll get the error message 'not enough memory to complete this task' and your programs will cease running. Even if you close all programs, paint will not respond. You'll be forced to reboot. I would expect this with a low memory box, but my Dell has 2 GB of memory. My IBM Thinpad has 512. Whatever Microsoft did, was not happening a few weeks ago, as I could open multiple paint windows w/o using up all the memory. If anyone has a clue as to how/why this is occuring, please comment. And yes, I checked and rechecked for spyware/malware and any virii, I'm clean.

Yupp northerdude, I'm noticing that if the jpg or jpeg is a digital H/D photo and it's large, it'll clog the memory. However, why would this slow down my 2 GB of memory on my Vista. Something's not adding up here. What does Adobe photoshop use up in % of memory when it's handling large photos? How is a high quality digital photo being handled by MS paint, when I use the copy then paste option? I can open H/Q photos from my own files, but when I use IE and MS paint at the same time, my system slows down to agonizing slow responses. I'll get the 'not enough memory close other programs' message. OK did that, won't work. Only way out is to use task mamager or reboot. I'm going to email MS on this matter.

OK this is getting weirder. I'm back using my Dell Vista Home Premium. In the past, maybe 2-3 weeks ago, I could open multiple paint windows w/o the message 'not enough resources to complete this task try closing programs. Now, I'm only able to open 1 or 2 paint windows. If I open 3, then Vista stops working, period. This was not happening a few weeks ago. I am runnng a prog called 'process monitor' and am trying to pinpoint the problem. IF that doesn't work, I will go back to a restore point and see if that works. I have NOT put any new progs on my H/D, so I do not know what is causing this on BOTH my Thinkpad with XP pro AND my Dell with Vista and 2 GB.