What do the "You have an open dialogue box" messages mean?

[Gamma]

When i insert my flash drive and rty to open a file, i often get a message,
"you can not access this file becsue you have an ipen dialogue box. close the
dialogue box and try again". but i don't know where or what to do. if I try
several tiems, I can usually get in, but these messages have become very
annoying. I used ot be able to get into my files with no trouble. This is now
occurrign onboth my computers, one ancient $60 comterm and one new Dell.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In Windows XP, I find that connecting some USB devices generates a dialog
box asking me what I want to do with the files on the drive and whether this
should be the default action. Since what I usually want to do is view the
drive in Windows Explorer, I just close the dialog without selecting
anything, but if for some reason this dialog was coming up behind another
window where you didn't see it, that might be the cause of the problem.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Following on from Suzanne's advice, when you see the message again, use
Alt+Tab to switch through open windows until you find the dialog that needs
some confirmation.