The Clipboard in Windows stores the most recent data that you had copied such that every time you copy new content, it gets updated in the clipboard as well. In the year 2018, the clipboard history along with other features was updated in Windows 10.
A clipboard basically saves the copied text or image temporarily and gets replaced by the latest one whereas the clipboard history allows you to access all the data stored in the clipboard. In this article, we will cover the features of the clipboard in Windows as well as how to clear clipboard history and control the data visibility.
Also, read about: Learn How To Use Mobile As Keyboard For Your PC
How to enable the Clipboard history in Windows?
The clipboard is a very useful tool that serves several purposes like:
- Copy data and store it until pasted.
- Clipboard history can be used to search for the previously used content.
- Keep track of the data you used.
- Delete and clear clipboard history to prevent viewing by others.
As this tool is useful and found in Windows 10 update, you can enable it by following these steps:
- Open the ‘Start’ menu and click on the ‘Settings’.
- Search for the ‘Clipboard settings’ from the system settings.
- Move the toggle under Clipboard history to ‘ON’ mode.
You can also share the clipboard and clipboard history across your devices by using the ‘Sync across devices’ settings.
Through this, you can automatically share the clipboard contents across the devices having the same Microsoft account credentials. For this choose the ‘Automatically sync text that I copy’ under Sync settings.
To view the clipboard history use this shortcut:
- Press Windows + V after enabling clipboard history.
- You can also use it to paste and pin the contents or data you need.
You can also use this shortcut if you are turning on the history for the first time.
Features of the Clipboard history in Windows 10
- The Clipboard history can store up to 25 contents in sequential order, such that each time exceeds the number, the older ones are removed and replaced by the new data.
- You can pin the content in the clipboard for future use. This feature is very helpful to open the application or link whenever you need it.
- The pinning of data will prevent it from being replaced by new content when the number exceeds 25.
- Every time the device is restarted, the unpinned contents in the clipboard are removed automatically. Hence, to retain data you must pin it.
- Each item should not exceed 4MB in size.
- The clipboard supports contents like:
- Text
- Bitmap
- HTML
How to clear clipboard history on Windows 10?
To clear the individually recorded data in the clipboard follow these steps:
- Open clipboard using the Windows + V shortcut.
- As you have already enabled clipboard history, all the recently copied content would be listed in a small window of the clipboard.
- To delete individual data, use the ‘x’ symbol at the corner of the tab.
You can pin the same by clicking on the pin-shaped icon on the tab.
Check out: Did You Know The 3 Ways To Take Screenshot In Windows 10?
To clear all the items in the clipboard history follow these steps:
- Open clipboard using the Windows + V shortcut to open the clipboard.
- Use the ‘Clear All’ option at the top right corner of the dialog box. This will clear every content in the clipboard which are unpinned.
These are the steps you can use to delete the clipboard history. This is useful especially if you have synced more than one device with the same Microsoft account. You can also disable the clipboard history by the following steps:
- Open the ‘Start’ menu and click on the ‘Settings’.
- Search for the ‘Clipboard settings’ from the system settings.
- Move the toggle under Clipboard history from ‘ON’ to ‘OFF’ mode.
Disabling the clipboard is a better alternative if you do not use it frequently or want to keep your data private in case of having more than one user or while using a common computer system.
Sync PCs to share Clipboard
Windows 10 with the 2018 updated version allows you to view and share the information across the devices connected by your Microsoft account. This helps to shift working from one device like phone or tablet to PC for ease of usage.
To sync your clipboard across the various devices, follow these steps:
- Open the ‘Start’ menu and click on the ‘Settings’.
- Search for the ‘Clipboard settings’ from the system settings.
- Just below the settings to enable the clipboard history feature, you would find the ‘Sync across devices’ setting.
- Make sure that you have selected to enable the clipboard history because without history being saved there is no use in sharing the clipboard across the devices.
- Enable the ‘Sync across devices’ setting using the toggle to turn it ‘ON’.
- You can choose the mode accordingly from:
- Automatically sync text that I copy
- Never automatically sync the text I copy
- The ‘Automatically sync text that I copy’ settings synchronizes every data that you copy across all your devices synced.
- In the case of the ‘Never automatically sync the text I copy’ you need to manually choose each time for the data to be synchronized with the devices sharing clipboard history.
- To sync individual data manually, use the sync option in the shape of a cloud located corner of each tab of copied items in the clipboard. Further, the data would be sent to the Microsoft cloud and then synced with all the devices.
Note: You have to enable the ‘Sync across devices’ setting in all the individual devices with which you want to access the clipboard along with the history saved to it.
Also, read about: Connect Two Monitors To A Laptop For An Extended View
In this article, we have covered all the aspects of the Clipboard feature available in the latest version of Windows along with how to clear clipboard history on Windows 10 and sync various devices for clipboard history sharing. Hope you found this useful to understand this new and handy tool available in Windows.
Latest Articles