Mar 22, 2010 Windows provides no way to open or view the content of the clipboard. Since it can contain literally ANY kind of information, a program to open the clipboard would have to be huge and capable of opening every type of file in the world. To sync your copied items automatically to your other devices select Start Settings System Clipboard.Choose Automatically sync text that I copy. Selecting Never automatically sync text that I copy will require you to open your clipboard history (Windows logo key + V) and manually select the sync button on the clipboard item.
When you copy any content on your Windows 10 computer, the copied content remains available on the Clipboard and can be seen by anyone with access to your computer. Hence, let us take a look at how to Clear the Clipboard on a Windows 10 Computer.
Why Clear Clipboard in Windows 10
Clipboard can be described as a special or dedicated storage location in RAM, used by the computers to store bits of data on a temporary basis.
When you copy text, image or any other kind of information on your computer using the (Ctrl+C) command, the information is stored on the Clipboard and remains accessible, even after you have executed the Paste command.
For this reason, the data stored on the Clipboard of your computer can turn out to be a security risk, in case you are using a public computer or your computer can be accessed by others. This is especially true, in case you have the habit of copying and pasting passwords and other sensitive data on your computer.
Hence, it makes all the sense to get into the habit of clearing the Clipboard, as soon as you are done using your Computer.
Clear Clipboard in Windows 10
There are multiple ways to clear the Clipboard on your Windows 10 computer and you can make use of any of the methods as described below.
1. Copy Other Content
Since the clipboard on your computer holds one-time data only, you can simply copy other content which is not personal or sensitive in nature.
For example, let us assume that you were working on a sensitive Microsoft Word Document. You can rule out all the chances of any sensitive data remaining on the Clipboard by simply copying a single word or any other data which is meaningless and not confidential or sensitive in any way.
This way, you will be replacing any sensitive information on the Clipboard with some random word or meaningless data which can never be misused by anyone.
2. Use Print Screen
Pressing the Print Screen key on the keyboard of your computer is another way of clearing Clipboard on your Windows 10 computer. This will replace the sensitive data on Clipboard with a screen shot of your Desktop.
3. Restart your computer
Although this can be rather inconvenient, restarting your computer is another way of clearing the Clipboard on a Windows 10 computer.
Since, the data on the Clipboard is stored on the RAM, restarting the computer clears this temporary data from your computer.
4. Create Shortcut to Clear Clipboard
In case you have a frequent need to clear the Clipboard, you may want to create a dedicated shortcut on the desktop of your computer to help you clear the Clipboard on your Windows 10 computer.
1. Right-click anywhere (Empty space) on the Screen of your Windows 10 Computer. This will activate a Contextual menu on the desktop of your computer.
2. In the Contextual menu, click on New (1) and then click on Shortcut (2) in the side-menu that appears (See image below)
3. Next, type cmd /c echo off. | clip as the location for the shortcut and click on Next (See image below)
4. On the next screen, type any Name for the shortcut and click on Finish.
5. You should be able to see the Clear Clipboard shortcut icon created on the Desktop of your Computer.
As you can see in the above image, the shortcut looks like a Command Prompt window. In case you feel like, you can change the look of this shortcut by following the steps below.
1. Right-click on the Clipboard shortcut Icon and then click on Properties in the contextual menu (See image below).
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2. On the Clipboard Properties Screen, click on the Change Icon… button and then select an appropriate icon for this shortcut (See image below)
How to Use Clear Clipboard Shortcut
Let us now take a look at how to Clear Clipboard in Windows 10 using the Clear Clipboard Shortcut that we created above.
1. Copy some Content and paste it into a Notepad or Word Document.
Now the content that you just copied is still available on the Clipboard and can be accessed by anyone with access to your computer.
2. Next, double-click on the Clear Clipboard shortcut. You will see a Black Screen popping up and disappearing on the screen of your computer.
3. Now, try to Paste (Ctrl+V) the clipboard content into a Notepad or MS Word Document.
You will see that nothing will be pasted on the document, confirming that “Clear Clipboard” shortcut is working on your Windows 10 computer.
In general, the idea is to make sure that you remember to clear the Clipboard on your Windows 10 computer. This will rule out the possibility of any confidential or sensitive data being available on the Clipboard of your computer.
We do usually copy and paste many things, including files and texts on our PC. Only the last copied item is available for us to paste, by default. So, we might need to save the copied content on a notepad or elsewhere to access later. Microsoft recently introduced a solution for it. Despite the clipboard history apps on Windows, the new feature is bringing the same through an easier method.
Here is how to get clipboard history on Windows 10, using the new clipboard feature, as well as using the third-party apps.
Windows Clipboard
Microsoft pushed out many useful features and additions with the October 2018 update for the Windows 10 Operating System. Among them, the new option named “Clipboard” seems to be very useful. When you want to save your clipboard history and to access them later, you may need to get some third-party apps. Microsoft puts an end to such a situation with the new feature, and it lets you save or pin the clipboard history for later. You can even access them later using an inbuilt keyboard shortcut, without even running any extra application on the background.
In order to get the feature, you must use the latest version of Microsoft Windows 10. Since the feature is available only for the Windows 10 with the updates from October 2018 or later, make sure you have it. You can also check if your Windows 10 version is 1809 or newer. Check it from Settings > System > About > Version. Here is how to enable the new Clipboard feature on the latest versions of Windows 10.
- From your Windows 10 PC/Laptop, open Settings. You can open it from Start > Settings or by pressing Windows Key + I.
- Click on Systems.
- Scroll down from the left pane and choose Clipboard.
- From the window, find the Clipboard History and toggle it on.
This is it, and you have just enabled the feature which you were looking for a long time. Whenever you copy some text, it will be saved in the clipboard and you could access them later.
Whenever you need to access the copied clipboard items, you simply need to press the key combination Windows Key + V. The clipboard history will be shown in a floating window as a list, and you can use the previously copied item from there. Apart from the history feature on the Clipboard section, Microsoft also added a Clipboard Sync across multiple devices through the cloud. However, the sync feature is currently under testing only.
Note: Once you turn off the PC, all the saved clipboard items will be cleared. Therefore, you can turn on the Clipboard Sync feature from your Windows 10 PC Settings.
Clipdiary
Moving from the official feature that allows clipboard history access, it is time to discuss a third-party tool for the same. Amongst the dozens of apps that are available for the same purpose, we chose the Clipdiary, which is quite easier to handle and lightweight compared to others. Also, it is entirely a freeware, showing even no ads. It comes with many features that the official one lack.
One of the major features it comes with is that the Clipdiary retains every copied texts and data. Similar to the Windows Clipboard, you can also set a permanent keyboard shortcut combination, for the sake of easiness. Here is how you can get your clipboard history on Windows 10 using the Clipdiary app.
- Download and Install the Clipdiary app on your Windows 10 PC.
- Open the app.
- Choose the keyboard shortcuts or set the default key combinations as your preference.
- Close the app.
If you chose the default options for the Clipdiary app, the keyboard shortcuts to copy, paste and show the clipboard items will be as in below.
How To Access Clipboard Windows 10
- Ctrl + D: Clip selection dialogue box.
- Ctrl + Shift + Up: Quickly copy the previous item to the current clipboard.
- Note: When you do this, the previous item will be present in the clipboard and you can paste it directly using Right Click > Paste or Ctrl + V.
- Ctrl + Shift + Down: This combo will copy the last item or the next item to the system clipboard.
- Ctrl + Shift + V: This is an inbuilt or default “paste as plain text” keyboard shortcut for Windows and most browsers. After all, the text will be pasted without any formatting.
The above keyboard shortcuts will run as long as the Clipdiary app or its daemon runs in the background. So, the app will auto start at the time of booting. In case you are unable to access the clipboard using the key combination after a restart, you can check if the app is allowed to run at the time of start-up. Here is how to check if the app is allowed at start-up.
Also Read: Best Clipboard Manager Windows Tools for Efficiency
- Open Task Manager from Start.
- Note: You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager.
- Switch to the tab “Startup.”
- Click the Clipdiary.exe and check the status.
- If it shows “Disabled,” change it to Enable by clicking the button at the bottom or Right Click > Enable.
- Close the Task Manager and restart your system.
From the next bootup onwards, you will be able to start using the Clipdiary.
With the above options, there is no more requirement of opening extra notepad or text editor to save a copied text. The system will retain every copied item and will show you for later access. The new Windows Clipboard might be one of the coolest features on the new Windows 10 update. Besides, there are many other apps available for clipboard access other than Clipdiary. If you do have more productive ways to handle the clipboard items and copy/paste contents seamlessly, do share with us.