How to pin text and images to windows 10’s clipboard history
Benj Edwards is an Associate Editor for How-To Geek. For over 15 years, he has written about technology and tech history for sites such as The Atlantic, Fast Company, PCMag, PCWorld, Macworld, Ars Technica, and Wired. In 2005, he created Vintage Computing and Gaming, a blog devoted to tech history. He also created The Culture of Tech podcast and regularly contributes to the Retronauts retrogaming podcast. Read more.
Windows 10 makes copy and paste more convenient with a feature called Clipboard history. It allows you to pin items you frequently copy and paste to a list for quick access. Here’s how to use it.
What Is Clipboard History?
Clipboard history was introduced in Windows 10’s October 2018 Update. It allows you to see a list of the 25 most recent items you’ve copied to the Clipboard by pressing Windows+V.
With the History feature enabled, Windows stores entries composed of text, HTML, or images that are less than 4 MB. Larger items aren’t stored in the Clipboard history. Items in the list are also erased every time you restart your device unless they’re pinned.
By default, Clipboard history is not enabled—you have to turn it on in Settings, so that’s what we’re going to do first.
How to Enable Clipboard History in Windows 10
To enable Clipboard history, click the Start button, and then click the Gear icon on the left side of the Start menu to open “Windows Settings.” Alternatively, you can press Windows+I.
Click “Clipboard” in the sidebar, and then toggle-On the “Clipboard history” option.
Clipboard history is now enabled. You can close “Windows Settings” and use the feature anywhere on the system.
How to Pin Items to Clipboard History in Windows 10
After you’ve enabled Clipboard history, press Windows+V to open the list of items you’ve copied recently in any application.
The window will appear either near the application you’re using or, if all windows are closed or minimized, in the lower-right corner of the screen. The items you’ve copied most recently will be at the top of the list.
You can pin an item to the Clipboard history list in two steps. First, click the ellipsis (. . .) next to the item you want to pin.
A small menu will pop up beside the item; select “Pin.”
Once you pin an item, it will remain in the Clipboard history, even if you reboot your computer or click “Clear All.”
To unpin an item, just press Windows+V to open Clipboard history. Click the ellipses beside the item, and then click “Unpin.”
Whenever you want to quickly paste an item you’ve pinned, just press Windows+V and select it from the list. The item will then be pasted into the application you’re using.
The best part is you can access the Windows+V menu from anywhere in Windows. Have fun pasting!
Copy images and text from one PC to another with a cloud-based clipboard. Not only can you can paste from your clipboard history, but you can also pin the items you find yourself using all the time.
To get to your clipboard history, press Windows logo key + V. From the clipboard history, you can paste and pin frequently used items by choosing an individual item from your clipboard menu. Pinning an item keeps it from being removed from the clipboard history to make room for new items.
Share your clipboard items to another Windows 11 device
Select Start > Settings > System > Clipboard.
Select Sync across devices and toggle it on.
Select Automatically sync text that I copy. The sync feature is tied to your Microsoft account, or your work account, so remember to use the same login information on all your devices.
Copy images and text from one PC to another with a cloud-based clipboard. Not only can you can paste from your clipboard history, but you can also pin the items you find yourself using all the time.
To get to your clipboard history at any time, press Windows logo key + V. From the clipboard history, you can paste and pin frequently used items by choosing an individual item from your clipboard menu. Pinning an item keeps it from being removed from the clipboard history to make room for new items.
Share your clipboard items to another Windows 10 device
Select Start > Settings > System > Clipboard.
Under Sync across devices, choose On. The sync feature is tied to your Microsoft account, or your work account, so remember to use the same login information on all your devices.
Benj Edwards is an Associate Editor for How-To Geek. For over 15 years, he has written about technology and tech history for sites such as The Atlantic, Fast Company, PCMag, PCWorld, Macworld, Ars Technica, and Wired. In 2005, he created Vintage Computing and Gaming, a blog devoted to tech history. He also created The Culture of Tech podcast and regularly contributes to the Retronauts retrogaming podcast. Read more.
Windows 10 takes copy and paste to another level with a feature called Clipboard history, which lets you see a list of items you have copied to the clipboard recently. Just press Windows+V. Here’s how to turn it on and view your clipboard history.
What Gets Stored in Clipboard History?
Clipboard history first appeared in Windows 10’s October 2018 Update (Version 1809). Currently, Clipboard history supports text, HTML, and images less than 4 MB in size. Larger items won’t be stored in the history.
Clipboard history stores a maximum of 25 entries, with the oldest items disappearing as new ones appear. Also, unless an item is pinned to the Clipboard, the Clipboard history list will reset every time you restart your computer or device.
How to Enable Clipboard History in Windows 10
First, click the “Start” button, and then click the “Gear” icon on the left side of the Start menu to open the “Windows Settings” menu. You can also press Windows+i to get there.
In Windows Settings, click on “System.”
On the Settings sidebar, click on “Clipboard.” In Clipboard settings, locate the section called “Clipboard history” and toggle the switch to “On.”
Clipboard history is now turned on. You can now close Settings and use the feature in any application.
How to View Clipboard History in Windows 10
Once you have enabled Clipboard history, you can call up a list of items you have copied recently while using any application. To do so, press Windows+V.
A small window will pop up. The most recent items you’ve copied are at the top of the list.
You can click on any item in the Clipboard history list to paste it into an open application.
To remove items from Clipboard history, click on the ellipses (three dots) beside the item you’d like to delete. Select “Delete” from the small menu that pops up.
If you’d like to remove all the items from Clipboard history, click “Clear All” In the ellipses menu.
It’s also possible to pin an item on the Clipboard history list. That way, it will stay on the list even if you reboot the computer or click a “Clear All.” To do so, click on the three-dot menu and select “Pin.” You can unpin the item later by selecting “Unpin” from the ellipses menu.
The Clipboard history interface has a slightly different look to it on older versions of Windows. Here are instructions for those running a build prior to 1909.
After using the Windows+V keyboard shortcut, a small floating window will pop up either near the application you are using, or if all windows are closed or minimized, in the lower-right corner of your screen. The most recent items you have copied will be at the top of the list.
While the Clipboard history window is open, you can click on any item in the list to paste it into an open application or document.
To remove items from Clipboard history, click the small “X” beside an item on the list. Or you can clear the entire list by clicking “Clear All” in the upper-right corner of the Clipboard history window.
You can also pin an item to the Clipboard history list by clicking on the tiny pushpin icon beside the item. That way, the item will remain on the Clipboard history list even if you reboot the computer or click “Clear All.”
How to Disable Clipboard History in Windows 10
To turn off Clipboard history in Windows 10, navigate to Settings > System > Clipboard. Locate the option titled “Clipboard history” and toggle the switch to “Off.”
Once disabled, if you press Windows+V, you will see a small window alerting you that Windows 10 cannot show your clipboard history because the feature is turned off.
If you often use Clipboard History in Windows 11/10, you should know about an essential feature that makes it even better. It is possible to pin text and image to Clipboard history so that you can find something quickly when it has several amounts of text or images. You can use this feature with or without Sync across the device option enabled.
When you cut or copy the text or image on your computer, it saves temporarily so that you can use it once or sometimes multiple times. At times, you may need to copy multiple sets of texts or pictures so that you can use them further. This is where Clipboard history plays a vital role.
If you are using the latest version of Windows 11/10, you should be familiar with using the Clipboard history to copy multiple texts or images to the clipboard and use them whenever needed. However, sometimes you may need to find a specific text or image quickly and frequently. At such a moment, you can pin that text or image so that it appears on the top.
Pin Text & Image to Clipboard History
To pin text or image to Clipboard history in Windows 11/10, follow these steps-
- Copy any text or image on your computer.
- Press Win+V to save it in the cloud clipboard.
- Click on the three-dotted icon of the corresponding text or image.
- Select the Pin option from the list.
Before getting started, you should ensure that the Clipboard history feature is enabled on your computer.
If not, you can open Windows Settings, go to System > Clipboard and toggle the Clipboard history button. Alternatively, you can follow our detailed guide to turn on Clipboard history.
If you already have the text or image in the cloud clipboard, there is no need to follow this step. Otherwise, you must paste the text or picture that you want to pin. As usual, you can press Win+V to paste a text or image in that. Then, you need to choose a text or picture that you want to pin and click on the three-dotted icon, respectively. Here, you can find an option called Pin that you need to click.
That is it. Now that text or image is pinned, you can find that always on the top no matter how many texts or pictures you save. If you need to unpin a pinned text or image in the Clipboard history panel, you can click the same three-dotted icon, and select Unpin option.
For your information, pinned texts or images do not get deleted if you use the Clear all feature.
Windows 10 makes copying and pasting more convenient with a feature called Clipboard history. It allows you to pin items that you frequently copy and paste into a list for quick access. Here’s how to use it.
What is clipboard history?
Clipboard history was introduced in the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. It allows you to see a list of the 25 most recent items you’ve copied to the Clipboard by pressing Windows+V.
With the History feature enabled, Windows stores entries made up of text, HTML, or images that are less than 4 MB. Larger items are not stored in the clipboard history. Items in the list are also cleared every time you restart your device, unless they are pinned.
By default, clipboard history is not enabled; you need to turn it on in Settings, so that’s what we’ll do first.
How to enable clipboard history in Windows 10
To enable Clipboard history, click the Start button and then click the gear icon on the left side of the Start menu to open “Windows Settings”. Alternatively, you can press Windows+I.
Click “Clipboard” in the sidebar and then enable the “Clipboard History” option.
Clipboard history is now enabled. You can close “Windows Settings” and use the function anywhere in the system.
How to Pin Items to Clipboard History in Windows 10
After enabling Clipboard history, press Windows+V to open the list of items you’ve recently copied in any app.
The window will appear near the application you are using or, if all windows are closed or minimized, in the lower right corner of the screen. The items you have copied most recently will be at the top of the list.
You can pin an item to the Clipboard history list in two steps. First, click the ellipses (. . .) next to the item you want to pin.
A small menu will appear next to the item; select “Set”.
Once you pin an item, it will remain in your Clipboard history, even if you restart your computer or click “Clear All”.
To unpin an item, simply press Windows + V to open the Clipboard history. Click the ellipses next to the item, then click “Unpin.”
Whenever you want to quickly paste an item you’ve pinned, just press Windows+V and select it from the list. The item will then be pasted into the application you are using.
The best part is that you can access the Windows+V menu from anywhere in Windows. Have fun hitting!
The clipboard is such a fundamental part of your computer’s operating system that cut, copy, and paste are probably the first three commands most people learn when getting started with a PC . It’s so logical and intuitive that it’s easy to forget that the concept of a clipboard had to be invented – programmers Larry Tesler and Tim Mott created copy and paste in the early 1970s.
But as useful as it is, the clipboard is limited in that it can generally only hold one item at a time. However, in Windows 10, you can enable the clipboard history to browse and paste the last 25 items you’ve cut or copied.
That means you can easily add multiple items to the clipboard and paste them elsewhere, which can save you the trouble of going back and forth between two programs to copy and paste multiple items.
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On a Mac, it’s a little more difficult. There’s no clipboard history tool, so in order to mimic that capability, you’ll need to install a third-party app.
What is clipboard history in Windows?
Since 2018, Windows 10 has included a clipboard history that you can use to paste a list of recently copied items into any program. In this way, it’s similar to the Spike in Microsoft Word, which lets you cut and paste multiple items to an enhanced clipboard.
The clipboard history holds the most recent 25 text snippets, HTML, and images smaller than 4MB. Other items – and larger items – don’t wind up in the history. And with the exception of clipboard items you pin to the history, the clipboard history is deleted each time you restart the computer.
How to turn on clipboard history in Windows 10
To use the clipboard history rather than just the single-item clipboard, you need to turn it on in Settings first. It might be on by default, but it only takes a moment to check.
1. Click the Start button and then click Settings.
2. Click System.
3. In the navigation pane on the left, click Clipboard.
4. In the Clipboard history section, make sure the toggle is On by swiping it to the right.
To disable the Clipboard history feature, swipe the toggle to the left for Off.
How to view and use clipboard history
Once the clipboard history is enabled, you can view it by pressing Windows + V at any time, in any program. You’ll see a window pop up, displaying the last 25 items that were copied or cut to the clipboard.
Here’s what you can do:
- To paste an item, scroll through the list and click the item you want to paste at the current cursor position in the active program.
- To pin a clipboard item to the history so it’ll remain even after you restart your PC, click the three dots to the right of the item and choose Pin.
- To delete an item from the clipboard immediately, click the three dots to the right of the item and choose Delete.
- To clear the entire clipboard history and start fresh, click the three dots to the right of the item and choose Clear all.
Using clipboard history on a Mac
Unfortunately, Mac does not support a clipboard history in the same way as Windows. You can only paste the most recently cut or copied item.
To do more, you can install a third-party clipboard utility. There are several to choose from, like the simple and free CopyClip, or PasteBot, which costs $12.99.
The clipboard is such a fundamental part of your computer’s operating system that cut, copy, and paste are probably the first three commands most people learn when getting started with a PC. It’s so logical and intuitive that it’s easy to forget that the concept of a clipboard had to be invented – programmers Larry Tesler and Tim Mott created copy and paste in the early 1970s.
But as useful as it is, the clipboard is limited in that it can generally only hold one item at a time. However, in Windows 10, you can enable the clipboard history to browse and paste the last 25 items you’ve cut or copied.
That means you can easily add multiple items to the clipboard and paste them elsewhere, which can save you the trouble of going back and forth between two programs to copy and paste multiple items.
On a Mac, it’s a little more difficult. There’s no clipboard history tool, so in order to mimic that capability, you’ll need to install a third-party app.
What is clipboard history in Windows?
Since 2018, Windows 10 has included a clipboard history that you can use to paste a list of recently copied items into any program. In this way, it’s similar to the Spike in Microsoft Word, which lets you cut and paste multiple items to an enhanced clipboard.
The clipboard history holds the most recent 25 text snippets, HTML, and images smaller than 4MB. Other items – and larger items – don’t wind up in the history. And with the exception of clipboard items you pin to the history, the clipboard history is deleted each time you restart the computer.
How to turn on clipboard history in Windows 10
To use the clipboard history rather than just the single-item clipboard, you need to turn it on in Settings first. It might be on by default, but it only takes a moment to check.
1. Click the Start button and then click Settings.
2. Click System.
3. In the navigation pane on the left, click Clipboard.
4. In the Clipboard history section, make sure the toggle is On by swiping it to the right.
To disable the Clipboard history feature, swipe the toggle to the left for Off.
How to view and use clipboard history
Once the clipboard history is enabled, you can view it by pressing Windows + V at any time, in any program. You’ll see a window pop up, displaying the last 25 items that were copied or cut to the clipboard.
Here’s what you can do:
- To paste an item, scroll through the list and click the item you want to paste at the current cursor position in the active program.
- To pin a clipboard item to the history so it’ll remain even after you restart your PC, click the three dots to the right of the item and choose Pin.
Using clipboard history on a Mac
Unfortunately, Mac does not support a clipboard history in the same way as Windows. You can only paste the most recently cut or copied item.
To do more, you can install a third-party clipboard utility. There are several to choose from, like the simple and free CopyClip, or PasteBot, which costs $12.99.
Gone are the days when you could copy text or images just once to your clipboard. You can now copy multiple items i.e. text and images from documents and the web to your clipboard on Windows 10 (Version 1809 or later). Along with that you can access the clipboard history, sync your clipboard history across your other Windows 10 devices, and pin the important clips for ease of use.
However, the storage limit on the clipboard is a maximum of 25 clips with the allotted space of a maximum of 4 MB per clip file. If you are someone who copies passwords, encryption keys, or any other type of sensitive information during your usage then this could potentially expose your data to security risks as the clipboard can be synced across devices and allow others to access your private info including Microsoft’s own servers.
Here’s how you can activate and access the clipboard history on Windows 10
Enabling the Clipboard History
- Open the Start menu and type settings in the search bar. Click on the Settings app to continue.
- Select the System tab to proceed.
- Scroll down on the left pane to select the Clipboard tab in the System menu.
- Turn on the switch under the Clipboard history tab to enable the clipboard history feature, which allows you to copy multiple items onto the clipboard simultaneously.
- You can also turn on the Clipboard history by pressing the Windows key + V to bring up the Clipboard menu. Select Turn on to enable clipboard history.
Accessing Clipboard History on Windows 10
- Once this feature is enabled, the possibilities are endless as this would record and maintain a history of the last 25 items that you copied to the clipboard from a document, the web, or even a screenshot using the Snipping Tool.
- As you can see, all you have to do is simply copy the text either by a right-click and Copy or by pressing Ctrl + C as a shortcut. This would add the text or image to the clipboard, but there is one exception that the clipboard does not store the files and folders that you generally tend to copy from the File Explorer such as a JPEG or an MP3 file.
- Simply press the Windows key + V to access the clipboard history instantly. You can scroll down to view the items that you had copied into the clipboard earlier.
- If you wish to set a priority for one of the items that you copied onto the clipboard for frequently used items then click on the menu and select Pin. Now the pinned item would be pasted first when you press the Ctrl + V key.
Syncing Clipboard History on Windows 10 Devices
- In the Clipboard menu within the Settings app, select Get Started and it will prompt you to confirm logging into your Microsoft account.
- Check the Automatically sync text that I copy option to sync your clipboard history across your other Windows-powered devices.
Using clipboard history on Windows 10 can streamline the experience for you as a user because now you can cycle between previous and currently copied items to your clipboard.
There are numerous useful keyboard shortcuts that can make your computing life easier, but Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V for copying and pasting via the clipboard are arguably the most helpful. But you may well feel that Windows 10’s built-in utility is a little lacking — how about the ability to store multiple items on the clipboard? What about synchronizing the clipboard between devices? The ability to keep things on the clipboard permanently?
Well these are actually options that are already available in Windows 10! For some reason Microsoft has opted to not only have it disabled by default, but also failed to advertise its existence. Here’s how to enable clipboard history and how to use it.
See also:
Having recently written about upcoming changes to Windows 10’s clipboard, a reader pointed out the history feature which I had completely forgotten existed. Looking back through my archives, I discovered that I’d written about the feature for a magazine over a year and a half ago — and then seemingly erased it from my mind. It might well be that you’d forgotten about it or didn’t know about it at all; use the following guide to get it up and running.
The only prerequisite is that you have at least Windows 10 October 2018 Update installed — and I ardently hope you do!
- Open Settings from the Start menu and click System
- Click the Clipboard section to the left
- Enable the toggle under Clipboard history
- If you’d like to be able to access clipboard contents between computers, enable the Sync across devices toggle as well (and see the note at the end of the article).
And that’s all there is to it. You can copy text, images and other items to the clipboard in the same way you always have — just press Ctrl + C (or Ctrl + X to cut rather than copy). The difference once you have enabled clipboard history is that when you press Ctrl + C for a second time the first item you copied is not replaced. If you press Ctrl + V, the last thing you copied will be pasted, but by pressing Win + V you can access clipboard history.
This floating panel displays a list of all the items you have copied, and you can paste any one of them by simply clicking it. There are additional options available if you click the . button next to an entry. From the sub-menu that appears, you can delete individual items, clear the clipboard completely, or pin any item you plan on pasting more than once. This last option is handy for code snippets you tend to reuse, and other pieces of text you usually type a lot, such as your address. Pinned items will remain on the clipboard even if you clear the rest of the contents.
One final option that’s worth mentioning relates to clipboard synchronization. When you enable this setting you can choose between synchronizing everything (Automatically sync text that I copy), or just those items that you specify (Never automatically sync text that I copy). With this latter option selected, you can choose individual items to synchronize by clicking the . button next to an entry followed by the Sync option.
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Clipboard history is nothing but storage where all your duplicate copy of data is stored. When you are copying, cutting, or moving some data from one place to another on your PC, a copy of this data is saved in your Computer’s Clipboard. The data can be in the form of text, hyperlink, text, or an image. The Clipboard usually resets after you shut down your computer, so the data you copy during one session of use are stored on your computer’s Clipboard. The function of a Clipboard is to allow users to copy or move the data from one place to another on a computer. Moreover, you can also move the data from one application to another.
On your Windows 10 computer, when you use the copy-paste shortcut that is Ctrl+ C and Ctrl+ V, the data is easily copied to the desired place. However, sometimes you may want to access the Clipboard history to view all the data that you have copied or moved from one place to another. You can even copy the data that you require again from the clipboard history. Windows XP provides a pre-installed clipboard program that the users can use to view the clipboard history of a PC running on Windows 10. Therefore, we understand that clipboard history can come in handy, and that is why we have a small guide that you can follow to know how to view Clipboard history.
How To View Clipboard History On Windows 10
Reasons to view Clipboard history on Windows 10
There may be many reasons for wanting to see the Clipboard history. The primary reason to view the Clipboard history is to delete the sensitive data that you copied on your computers, such as your login ids, passwords, or banking details. It is crucial to delete sensitive data from the Clipboard history, especially when you do not use your personal computer. Another reason could be to access some previous data that you copied or moved on your computer from one place to another.
3 Ways to view Clipboard history on Windows 10
We are mentioning some ways that you can use to access the Clipboard history on your Windows 10 computer:
Method 1: Use the in-built Clipboard History
Windows 10 update in 2018 introduced the in-built Clipboard history feature. You can read about the clipboard history functionality from the official Microsoft page. However, the inbuilt Clipboard history supports only text, HTML, and images that have a size of less than 4 MB. You can easily enable the feature of Clipboard history by following these steps.
1. The first step is to open the Clipboard Settings. For this, use the Windows search bar in the bottom left of the screen to type ‘Clipboard settings’ and click on Open.
2. In Clipboard history, switch the toggle on for the option ‘Clipboard history.’
3. If you want to sync your Clipboard history to another device then click on ‘Sign in‘.
4. Moreover, if you want to clear your clipboard data, you can easily click on the ‘Clear’ button under “Clear clipboard data”.
5. Some applications such as Microsoft word has in-build Clipboard options that you can use in the application itself. For this, open Microsoft word and click on the Clipboard under the Home section.
Method 2: Download the Clipboard app from Windows Store
Another method is using the Clipboard app that is designed for Windows 10 users for able to access the Clipboard history. You can easily use the Clipboard app for moving and copying the data from one place to another. This application is a better alternative to the in-build Clipboard in Windows 10 as you can view all your Clipboard history conveniently. Moreover, the application is pretty easy to use, and you can quickly install the application from the Windows store on your computer. Follow these steps for this method.
1. Type Microsoft store in the Windows Search bar then click on the Microsoft Store from the search results.
2. In the Microsoft Store, Search for the ‘Clipboard’ application.
3. Locate the Clipboard application from the search results and click on Get to install it. Make sure that you are downloading the right application. Clipboard app is published by Justin Chase and is free of cost.
4. Once it is successfully installed, Launch it.
5. Finally, you can use the application to view the clipboard history on Windows 10 Computer. Moreover, you also have the option of sharing the Clipboard data from the application to any other desired location.
Method 3: Use the Clipdiary App
If you are not satisfied with the previous application that is available on the Windows Store, then you have the option of using this application called Clipdiary. This application is available for Windows 10 users in the form of a third-party Clipboard viewer and manager on Windows 10. Clipdiary does not involve any charges for using the services as it is free of cost. You can use this application to look at all the data that you have copied or moved from one place to another during your current session. Moreover, you can also edit or remove the data from the Clipboard history using this application. You can follow these steps for installing and using the clipdiary app:
1. The first step is to download the clipdiary app on your Windows 10 computer. For this, you can easily download this application from your Google browser.
2. Now, download and install the clipdiary application on your computer. When the app is downloaded, all you have to do is locate where it has downloaded and double click on it to launch the app.
3. After launching the clipdiary app, you can easily use the shortcut Ctrl+ D to view the Clipboard history, as this app will run in the background while you are using the computer.
4. Finally, with the help of this application, you can retrieve the data that you have copied on the Clipboard, or you can edit all the data in the Clipboard history. Moreover, you can conveniently move the copied data from the Clipboard to any other location as well.
So this application is another great alternative to the previous methods. It is completely free of cost, and you do not have to pay anything for using all the features of the application.
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We hope this guide was helpful and you were able to view clipboard history on Windows 10 by using the above-mentioned methods. If you have any questions regarding this article then feel free to ask them in the comment section.
Pete Mitchell
Pete is a Senior staff writer at TechCult. Pete loves all things technology and is also an avid DIYer at heart. He has a decade of experience writing how-tos, features, and technology guides on the internet.
Oct 4, 2018
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If you use a clipboard manager app on Windows 10, updating to the Windows 10 October 2018 update may negate the need for it.
This new version lets you store your clipboard history and recall a previous entry with a simple keyboard shortcut. Here’s how you can view clipboard history on Windows 10.
Clipboard History On Windows 10
First, make sure you’re on the October 2018 build by opening the run box, and typing winver in it. The version should be 1809.
Before you can view clipboard history on Windows 10, you need to first enable it. Open the Settings app and go to the System group of settings. Select the Clipboard tab, and turn on clipboard history.
You can view clipboard history on Windows 10 from this point forward. Anything that you copied before enabling it will not appear.
Where is my clipboard?
To view your clipboard history, tap Windows logo key +V. A little panel will open that will list all items, images, and text, that you copied to your clipboard. Scroll through it and click an item you want to paste again.
If you look closely at the panel, you will see that each item has a little pin icon on it. Clicking it will exempt the item from being cleared when you clear your clipboard history.
Speaking of which, you can clear your history by clicking the Clear all button on the clipboard history panel. You can also delete it from the Clipboard tab in the Settings app.
The clipboard can also be synced across devices but this option isn’t enabled by default.
A word of caution on clipboard history
Users tend to copy and paste sensitive information like logins, passwords, and even banking information to their clipboard.
This isn’t a good idea, ever, but before the October 2018 update, it wasn’t as dangerous because Windows only remembered the last entry on your clipboard.
If you enable clipboard history on Windows 10, you need to take special care that you do not copy sensitive information to your clipboard. If you do copy sensitive information to the clipboard, make sure that you clear it out immediately. You can remove individual items from your history.
Parting words
The history will persist past a system restart so you have to be proactive about keeping it clean.
Sensitive information shouldn’t be stored there but to make sure that it’s still usable, you should trim the items on the clipboard regularly so that only important items are kept long term.
There doesn’t seem to be any limit on how many items it can store but since this is a native Windows 10 feature, you can expect it to store a reasonably large number of items.
Windows 10 Clipboard FAQs
How do I turn on my clipboard history?
Select Windows logo key + V, and then select Turn on.
How do I sync my clipboard items to my Computer?
Select Start > Settings > System > Clipboard . Choose On under Sync across devices.
How do I clear my clipboard history?
Select Start > Settings > System > Clipboard > Clear clipboard data > Clear — this will clear everything on your device and the cloud, except for pinned items.
Select Windows logo key + V and then select the Clear all option at the top — this will clear your device clipboard history.
What if I want to get rid of something in the clipboard history?
Select Windows logo key + V to open the clipboard settings and then next to the item in question, select Delete.
How do I sync my clipboard to my phone?
Unfortunately, you can’t sync your clipboard history to your phone yet. This feature will be added in the future.
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Thank you for sharing the post. I agree with you clipboard is a helpful windows user.
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The new Clipboard experience that allows you to access a history of copied items, sync your Clipboard across multiple devices, and even pin your most frequently used items. This post will provide you with the method to use it. Read this post from MiniTool to get more details.
How to Enable Clipboard History and Sync Features
You should enable Windows 10’s new Clipboard history and sync features in the Settings application before you access any of them since they are disabled by default. Here are the steps to enable them.
Step 1: Type settings in your Windows Search box and choose the first result. Then click System in the Settings application.
Step 2: Click Clipboard in the left panel.
Step 3: Then you will see two options in the right section: Clipboard history and Sync across devices. You should turn them on.
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You can use Clipboard history to save multiple items that you can use later. There are two options for you under the Sync across devices section: Automatically sync text that I copy and Never automatically sync text that I copy.
The first option will sync the clipboard item with other devices. The second option do not automatically sync items, thus, you need to click the cloud icon to do that manually.
If you enable Clipboard history on Windows 10, you need to take special care that you do not copy sensitive information to your clipboard. If you do copy sensitive information to the clipboard, make sure that you clear it out immediately. You can remove individual items from your history.
How to Access Windows 10 Clipboard History
You can use the Windows 10 Clipboard history and sync features in any application after you enable Clipboard history and Sync across devices. Next, I will introduce how to access Windows 10 Clipboard history.
Step 1: You need to press the Windows key + V key at the same time to open the Clipboard panel.
Step 2: Then you can see a history of items that you’ve copied to the clipboard, with the more recent ones at the top. Click it to paste a certain item.
Step 3: Then it will be pasted in the current application.
You can also choose pin items, delete them, or clear the history. You need to click the three dots next to any of your items and three options will appear.
In addition, the last 25 items copied like URLs, text from web pages and docs, and images under 4 MB will be shown in history.
Enabling the sync option in Settings will allow you to use copied items across your multiple devices. You will be able to paste some text on another if you copy it on one PC.
Final Words
That is all the information about the new Clipboard history on Windows 10. As you can see, it’s very easy and useful to use the new Windows 10 Clipboard history, especially if you enable the sync feature and work on multiple devices.
About The Author
She was graduated from the major in English. She has been the MiniTool editor since she was graduated from university. She specializes in writing articles about backing up data & systems, cloning disks, and syncing files, etc. She is also good at writing articles about computer knowledge and computer issues. In daily life, she likes running and going to the amusement park with friends to play some exciting items.
This article will show how to enable and customize Clipboard History in Windows 10. By the way, as a Windows user, you may need a useful Windows program named MiniTool Partition Wizard which can help you manage hard drive easily.
Windows 10 Clipboard History
Windows 10 boasts a ton of features baked into the OS. One of such features is the Clipboard History which some Windows 10 users may think useful, and others not so much.
The Clipboard feature is one of the most common features of Windows 10. Cutting or copying bits of text or an image from one application and then pasting it into another is a common process that many of us perform on an almost daily basis. The common feature makes the process even easier.
This article displays 7 ways to help you fix the situation when the Copy and Paste function is not working, and states easy methods to achieve data backup.
Where you put something into the clipboard, all that was stored in it was erased. However, the Clipboard History feature unlocks multiple save slots to store multiple items in the clipboard for later use.
Please note that this feature is available in recent versions of Windows 10 but it is disabled by default.
Enable and Customize Clipboard History in Windows 10
This part will show you how to enable and customize Clipboard History in Windows 10. Now let’s explore the steps.
Enable Clipboard History in Windows 10
Here is the tutorial on enabling Clipboard History in Windows 10.
Step 1: Open the Settings app and navigate to the System screen.
Step 2: Scroll down the left side of the Settings window until you find the Clipboard feature.
Step 3: Look at the right-panel which should display the corresponding options. The Clipboard History option has a toggle beneath it which you can click to enable or disable depending on its state.
Now you have enabled the feature, and it is time to test it to find out how useful it is. To do so, you can use the following shortcut: press the Windows and V keys on the keyboard together.
After pressing, you will get a pop-up window that should be empty because you just enabled it and have not copied to the clipboard yet.
Let’s try copying something to the clipboard. Firstly, copy something for the internet or somewhere, and open the Clipboard History panel again. And you will see the copies now on the Clipboard History window.
This can be very useful in case you accidentally copied something else, like text and image, to the clipboard but don’t want to type it again. That is really convenient but that is just about it because you cannot recover files that you copy to the Clipboard or other data.
Do you know how to make hard drive recovery? This article will show you how to make hard drive recovery including data recovery and partition recovery.
Now you have known how to enable and view the Clipboard History, and here is a simple tutorial on pasting something from the Clipboard History.
Step 1: Place the cursor in the application that you want to paste the content into, like Chrome, Word, or any location that accepts text input.
Step 2: Once you have done that switch to the Clipboard History pane and left-click on the content. It will be pasted at the cursor instantly.
Customize Clipboard History
You can optionally choose to sign in to your Microsoft Account to save the Clipboard History to the cloud.
You can set this option at the Clipboard settings screen. Once you choose to enable it, the history will be synced across other devices, like your phone, another PC, or other devices that you sign in to.
Therefore, you can copy something to the Clipboard on your computer and sync it with your devices that you use.
Please note that it is not recommended to sync the history across other devices when Clipboard content contains important data in case of data leakage. Speaking of which, you can manually clear the Clipboard by clicking the X next to each entry or use the Clear Clipboard option in the Settings screen to delete all the data that was stored previously.
You may notice the pin icon next to each entry in the Clipboard History. You can use it to pin specific items to the panel.
Final Words
This article comes to an end, and I hope you have mastered how to enable and customize Clipboard History in Windows 10.
About The Author
Vicky is a website editor who has been writing tech articles since she was graduated from university. Most of her articles talk about Windows PC and hard disk issues. Some of her articles also touch on YouTube usage and issues.
During her spare time, she likes to spend time reading, watching videos, and sitting on her Yoga mat to relax.
Windows clipboard history has undergone a major evolution with the October update of Windows 10. In the past Windows systems did not save the clipboard history. This simply implied that when you carried out a copy operation, only that immediate item is copied to the clipboard and is available to be pasted. Previous clipboard contents are overwritten by default and lost forever.
Third-party software used to be the only alternative to managing clipboard items. Some of them have the capacity to remember everything copied – plain texts, texts with formatting, HTML, pictures and even files.
With the new October update in Windows 10, you can now access a history of items copied to the clipboard, pin frequently used items, and sync the clipboard across your PCs. This post will be a guide on how to use these new features in your Windows 10.
How to enable the new clipboard features of Windows 10
This feature is only available in Windows 10 version 1809 or later. It remains disabled by default and will need to be enabled for you to enjoy its rich features.
To get your new clipboard enabled, open your computer settings from your Start menu and navigate to “System -> Clipboard.” Make sure the “Save multiple items” toggle switch is turned on.
Windows automatically syncs all copied items across all devices by default once this toggle switch is turned on. It may be necessary but is also a personal choice to select the “Never automatically synch text that I copy” radio button. Doing this ensures sensitive information is not synced.
How to access clipboard history
The fastest way to access a history of items saved to your clipboard is by using the hotkey Win + V . This hotkey is used from whatever application you wish to access the clipboard from.
It opens up the clipboard panel and also displays items already stored on the clipboard. These items are sorted by recency. Clicking on any of the displayed items will paste it into the current application.
The new Windows 10 clipboard feature allows you to pin the most frequently pasted items for quick access. To achieve this, click on the pin to the right side of the item you need pinned.
How to clear clipboard history
Since copied items are automatically saved in the new Windows 10 clipboard, so it may become important to clear the clipboard from time to time, which is a very simple process. You should note that cleared items are lost forever.
To clear the clipboard history, open Settings from your Windows 10 Startup menu and navigate to “System -> Clipboard.” Next, click the “Clear” button under “Clear Clipboard Data.”
All items will be cleared with the exception of items that have been pinned. To clear pinned items, however, one must first unpin them and repeat the process.
Conclusion
Items copied on this new Windows 10 clipboard can be synced across all devices running this latest update of Windows. For this to work, however, you must be logged in with the same Microsoft account.
Currently, Windows 10 will only sync data less than 100 KB in size using this feature. Long portions of text and large images will not sync until Microsoft increases this limit.
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Here are the steps to view Windows 10 clipboard history. This Windows 10 feature allows you to view history and manually designate or “Pin” multiple items in your clipboard history that you want to save. This includes both images like screenshots and text you have copied to the clipboard. One major drawback to using this Windows 10 feature is that you have to constantly manage your clipboard or face the potential of losing this data. Earlier I wrote about Clipdiary which provides a more efficient way to manage clipboard history because you don’t have to be constantly pining everything you want to save. So if you find Windows 10 history feature difficult to manage then I highly recommend checking out my earlier post.
Common Windows 10 Questions:
Where can I find a list of copied text on my PC?
How to access all links copied?
When you copy text where is it stored?
How to check all copied things?
How to see the stuff you copied and pasted?
A list of things you copied and pasted?
First, make sure you turn on Windows 10 clipboard history
1. Press the Windows key and the X key on your keyboard at the same time to bring up the quick menu. Select Settings.
2. Once inside Windows 10 Settings choose System. Near the bottom of the System menu select Clipboard.
3. Once inside Windows 10 Clipboard under Clipboard History toggle this feature to the On position.
4. You have now enabled the Windows 10 Clipboard History feature. IMPORTANT! You may need to restart your computer. First, try pressing the Windows key and the V key on the keyboard at that same time to bring up the Windows 10 clipboard history window. If nothing happens when you press Windows + V, then you may need to restart your computer.
How to view Windows 10 clipboard history
1. To view Windows 1o Clipboard History press the Windows key and the V key on the keyboard at that same time. This will show the clipboard history window.
If you have not copied anything to the clipboard then it will appear like the image below.
2. Test your clipboard history by copying some text in an editor. Open MS Word or Notepad and type some text. Copy the text by highlighting it and then pressing the Control key Ctrl and the C key on the keyboard at the same time. Now reopen clipboard history by pressing the Windows Key plus the V key on the keyboard. You should now see the text you copied.
How to save clipboard history in Windows 10
To permanently save your clipboard history in Windows 10 you have to manage it carefully. Yes, Windows 10 clipboard history will store multiple instances of things you copy like text or screenshots, but you will lose everything if you restart your computer unless you follow the steps below.
1. After you have copied text or captured a screenshot, open Windows 10 clipboard history by pressing the Windows key and the V key on the keyboard at the same time.
2. Once you see your copied text or captured screenshot, you have to click the pins so that they are permanently saved.
