Most of us do it without thinking because copying and pasting are such staples of our technological lives. However, there are situations when we make a mistake and copy something over instead of pasting it. It’s as if something irreplaceable has been gone.
Which is why I absolutely require a clipboard manager. If someone sends you a hilarious meme that you just have to share in the company Slack channel, you may use these tools to go back and review everything you copied so that you don’t accidentally delete a crucial phone number or address.
While there are many different clipboard managers available for download, users of Windows 7 and later will not need to instal a third-party programme because one is already included in the operating system. The catch is that it’s not simple to locate.
Activating the Windows Clipboard History
Get started by launching your computer’s Settings menu. The Clipboard menu item can be found in the System menu. To activate the clipboard history, simply toggle the switch on.
If you have this feature enabled, pressing Win+V will bring up a pop-up window where you may see your 25 most recently clipped things.
Use the up and down arrow keys or your mouse to browse through your most recent clips. When you click an item (or press enter if you’re using the keyboard), the selected text will be copied and pasted into the active programme.
Remember that you can save items for later by clicking the pin button in the right-hand corner of each one. This is helpful if, for instance, you find yourself reiterating the same point again and over.
Joining Forces With Other Machines
We’ve covered how some apps enable cross-device copy and paste, but Windows users already have this functionality at their fingertips. Synchronizing your clipboard is helpful if you frequently switch between devices or if you need to transmit information from your phone to your laptop quickly and efficiently.
To begin, go to the Clipboard settings page again and toggle on the Sync option for all of your devices. If you have more than one device logged into the same Microsoft account, Windows will prompt you to sign in before copying anything. It’s important to remember that you’ll need to activate the feature individually for each gadget.
I did the test between two machines, one running Windows 10 and the other Windows 11. It synced perfectly, albeit I had to restart one of the PCs after turning it on before the clips appeared.
Clipboard synchronisation requires the October 2018 update or later for Windows 10, so keep that in mind if you’re using Windows 10.
Android-Compatible Clipboard Syncing
Having a clipboard that is compatible with both your computer and your phone is quite convenient if you find yourself frequently jumping between the two devices. If you’re using an Android device with version 5.0 or later, you can sync your clipboard with a computer running Windows 10 or Windows 11, but only if you instal the Swiftkey keyboard on your phone.
That’s fine, though, because Swiftkey is a fantastic alternative to other keyboard programmes.
Set Swiftkey as your default keyboard to share your clipboard throughout all of your devices. The next step is to access Swiftkey’s preferences and activate Sync clipboard history.
After logging into the app with your Microsoft account, you’ll be able to paste content from your phone onto your computer and vice versa.
While Swiftkey is compatible with iOS and iPadOS, this clipboard management capability is not yet available on Apple devices.
