Can't create any more windows

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Just in the last few weeks, Windows XP has begun to impose a crippling
limitation on me. After some number of windows have been created--even if
later closed--WinXP won't let me create any more. In Internet Explorer, if
I try to create a new window, all the IE windows blow themselves away. In a
program like Adobe Photoshop Elements, I get a polite message saying that it
cannot do anything because it cannot create another window. Once again I
emphasize that the limitation is not on the number of windows at one time
(which I could understand), but the number of windows since the last boot
(which appears to indicate a resource leak within WinXP itself).

I have 2 GB of RAM, and many GB of paging space, so real or virtual memory
is not the limitation. My best guess is a resource leak that may have crept
into Windows XP with some recent Microsoft update.