The windows Clipboard is where the computer temporarily stores text, files, graphics etc. that your CUT or COPY resides until you PASTE the content into its new location. Up until XP you could easily check the contents of your clipboard using the ClipBoard Manager. For some blurry security reason Microsoft removed this nifty application from Windows Vista onward. If you miss this feature, fear not – the fix is a simple one. If you have access to a Windows XP installation (XP mode anyone ??) you can copy it to your Windows 8, 7, or Vista machine.
Here’s where to find it
If you don’t have access to a XP installation, fear not – just keep reading.
How to Retrieve the Clipboard Manager
- In XP, open the folder named C:\windows\system32 and look for this file: clipbrd.exe
- Download it from here: clipbrd
Soon as you’ve got the file, copy it to a desired location, preferably the System32 folder of your windows installation. You may get an error from Windows telling you that the Clipboard Service isn’t running. You can easily ignore this error and use the program anyway.
The Freeware Solution
Of course, considering your fear of using “old” files on your new system there is also many freeware applications out there; doing the same thing as the one from Microsoft. Here is one called “Free Clipboard Viewer“.
About Thomas
Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...
Changing prog files is a bit risky. I use clipboard viewer tools to see the clipboard content.
Another alternative is ClipX. By pressing CTRL-SHIFT-V instead of CTRL-V it will bring up a list of the last clipboard entries (can set it to return and store many clipboard entries). I have mine set to 50!
Seriously, get rid of the crapware that comes with this.