Estimated Time to Fix: 3 minutes

Summary

This article guides you through fixing issues where the copy and paste functions (Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V) suddenly stop working on your Windows computer.

Symptoms

• Pressing Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V does nothing.
• Right-clicking and selecting Copy or Paste is greyed out or doesn't work.
• The computer pastes old text instead of the text you copied.

Before You Start

• None required.

Instructions

1. Restart the Windows Explorer Process

The clipboard runs inside Windows Explorer, so restarting it clears most copy and paste failures.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager.
2. Make sure you are on the Processes tab.
3. Scroll down the list and look for Windows Explorer (it has a yellow folder icon).
4. Right-click Windows Explorer and select Restart.
5. Your taskbar and desktop icons will briefly disappear and reappear. Try copying and pasting again.
6. If pasting still does nothing, or drops in text you copied earlier, a stuck entry in clipboard history is blocking everything you copy now. Continue to Step 2.

2. Clear the Clipboard History

One corrupted item in clipboard history can block everything copied after it.

1. Click the Start button, type Settings, and press Enter.
2. Navigate to System > Clipboard.
3. Scroll down to the Clear clipboard data section and click the Clear button.
4. If pasting still fails with the history emptied, the Windows service that stores what you copy has stopped running. Continue to Step 3.

3. Restart the "Clipboard User Service"

When the clipboard service itself has stopped, nothing you copy is being stored anywhere.

1. Press the Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type services.msc and press Enter.
3. Scroll down the list until you find Clipboard User Service.
4. Right-click it and select Restart (if Restart is greyed out, click Start).
5. If the service was already running when you found it, the clipboard itself is healthy and a single application is refusing to use it. Continue to Step 4 to find out which.

4. Verify Success

Copy a line of text into a blank document to confirm the clipboard is working again.

1. Highlight some text, press Ctrl + C, then open a blank document (like Notepad or Word) and press Ctrl + V to confirm it pastes correctly.
2. If nothing arrives in Notepad either, raise a ticket saying that copy and paste fails in every application, that you restarted Windows Explorer and Clipboard User Service without a change, and whether you are working inside a remote desktop or virtual machine session.

Troubleshooting

WARNING

If copy and paste only fails in a specific application (like Microsoft Word or Excel), the issue is likely with that specific program, not your Windows clipboard. Try restarting that application.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Only fails in a remote desktop or virtual machine	Connection settings	Check your remote desktop client settings to ensure "Clipboard sharing" is enabled.
Keyboard shortcuts don't work, but mouse clicks do	Keyboard issue	Check if your Ctrl key is stuck or broken. Try using the other Ctrl key on your keyboard.

Related Articles

• How to Fix Common Computer Glitches by Restarting

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