[Tip] How to Configure and Use Cloud-Based Clipboard (WIN+V) Feature in Windows 10

Newer versions of Windows 10 come with cloud-based Clipboard feature which allows users to copy, select and paste multiple items from the clipboard.

In past, all Windows versions allowed users to copy and paste only a single item at a time. For example, you copied one paragraph of text and then you copied another line of text, in such case Windows will only keep the new text line in clipboard and will remove the previous copied text paragraph from clipboard.

Now the new cloud-based clipboard in Windows 10 allows users to copy multiple items and then the user can select and paste desired copied items anywhere he wants such as Notepad, MS Word, etc.

In past to copy the text, we needed to use Ctrl+C hotkey and to paste the text we needed to press Ctrl+V hotkey. Of course, we can use mouse clicks too.

The new cloud-based clipboard can be used by pressing WIN+V keys together. To copy items you still need to use the same Ctrl+C hotkey but to paste the copied text from cloud-based clipboard, you need to use the new WIN+V keyboard shortcut.

The new cloud-based clipboard can also store images of size up to 4MB such as screenshots taken using WIN+PrtScn hotkey.

Using Cloud-Based Clipboard in Windows 10:

When you press WIN+V keys together, Windows 10 launches the new cloud-based clipboard fly-out as shown in following screenshot:

If you didn’t copy anything, it’ll open blank and will show “Your clipboard is empty” message as shown above.

Once you start copying things in Windows, the clipboard also starts collecting and storing them and when you press the WIN+V keys together next time, it shows the copied items in its fly-out as shown in following screenshot:

The window also shows the timestamp when the item was copied by the user.

To paste an item, just click on it and it’ll be immediately pasted at current cursor position in your program window.

Removing Items from Clipboard History:

If you want to delete an individual item from clipboard fly-out history, hover mouse cursor over it and click on the (x) button to remove it from the history.

To clear everything from clipboard history i.e. delete all copied items from clipboard history, you can click on “Clear all” option given at the top-right corner of the clipboard fly-out. It’ll immediately clear clipboard history.

Pin Items in Clipboard History:

If you restart your PC, Windows 10 will clear clipboard history and all items present in clipboard history will be removed automatically. To prevent this from happening, if you want to keep some copied items in clipboard history, you can pin them.

Once you pin an item in clipboard, it’ll not be deleted by Windows even upon system reboot and even if you manually clear clipboard history using “Clear all” option.

To pin an item, hover your mouse cursor over the item and click on PIN button.

You can pin multiple items in clipboard history to save them from automatic deletion.

Configure Cloud-Based Clipboard Settings in Windows 10:

Windows 10 provides a dedicated page in Settings app to change and customize new cloud-based clipboard options. To open the clipboard settings page, do as following:

1. Open Start Menu and click on Settings option. It’ll open Settings app. Alternatively, you can direct open Settings app using WIN+I hotkey.

2. Now click on “System” icon and in left-side pane, click on “Clipboard” section.

PS: Alternatively, You can directly launch the “Clipboard” page using “ms-settings:clipboard” command in RUN dialog box as mentioned here.

On this page you can configure clipboard settings. The page provides following 3 options to control:

• Clipboard history
• Sync across devices
• Clear clipboard data

Using the first Clipboard history option, you can turn on/off (enable/disable) the cloud-based clipboard history feature which means anything you copy in Windows, will not be stored anymore in cloud-based clipboard. If you don’t want to use new cloud-based clipboard feature in Windows 10, set the toggle button to OFF to permanently disable cloud-based clipboard functionality.

The second option “Sync across devices” allows users to access the copied items history on other PC and devices which use same Microsoft account sign-in.

“Clear clipboard data” option is the same as “Clear all” option provided in the clipboard fly-out. It removes all items from clipboard history except the pinned items.

Tip for Advanced Users:

All cloud-based clipboard settings are stored under following key in Registry Editor (regedit):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Clipboard

I found following DWORDs present under this key:

• ClipboardTipRequired
• CloudClipboardAutomaticUpload
• EnableClipboardHistory
• HistoryOldItemsLastCleanupTimestamp
• PastedFromClipboardUI
• ShellHotKeyUsed

The last 2 DWORDs ShellHotKeyUsed and PastedFromClipboardUI represent whether you have used WIN+V hotkey to access clipboard and pasted something from it. If the value is 1, it means you have tried the clipboard feature. If the value is 0, it means you haven’t tried it yet.

The new cloud-based clipboard is a very useful feature specially for those who copy same things again and again. Now you can just press WIN+V keys together and select the copied items. Also if you enable the sync option, you can access the copied items across your all devices.

Also Check:

[Tip] How to Disable Cloud-Based Clipboard (WIN+V) History in Windows 10