Clipboard (24H2)

The Windows Clipboard allows you to share information stored in one app--the source app--with a second app--the destination app--using well-understood copy, cut, and paste operations. It has evolved over the years to include rich text formats including those supported by Microsoft Office applications and multiple graphics formats. And File Explorer uses Clipboard-based copy, cut, and paste operations for copying and moving files between different locations in the file system.

The Clipboard can only hold a single item by default, and it exists solely in RAM, so it is not persistent and will not survive a reboot. That item is stored in multiple formats when necessary, however, for maximum compatibility. For example, if you copy or cut formatted text from a Microsoft Word document, that item is stored in the Clipboard in multiple formats so that it can retain its formatting or be pasted as plain text, depending on the destination application.

Windows 11 provides the most advanced version of Clipboard yet. In addition to supporting all the functionality you remember from previous Windows versions, you can also use a Clipboard history feature to store multiple items in the Clipboard at once, sync Clipboard text between multiple PCs, and get suggestions for supported actions when you copy a date, time, or phone number to the Clipboard.
These additional Clipboard features require you to sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account.
Because basic Clipboard operations are well understood, we focus on the Clipboard features that debuted in Windows 10 and 11 and are probably unfamiliar to many readers in this chapter.
Paste multiple items to the Clipboard with Clipboard history
To help overcome the Clipboard's most obvious limitation--it can hold only a single item at a time--Windows now lets you enable a Clipboard history feature that lets you save multiple items to the Clipboard. Once enabled, you can use a new keyboard shortcut, WINKEY + V, to determine which item to use when you paste information into another application.
Enable Clipboard history
To enable Clipboard history, open Settings (WINKEY + I) and navigate to System > Clipboard.

Then, enable the setting "Clipboard history."
Alternatively, you can simply type WINKEY + V. The Clipboard history window will appear, and you can click a "Turn on" button to enable this feature.
Now, when you copy something to the Clipboard, it will be added to the Clipboard and will not replace whatever was in the Clipboard previously. With a few caveats:

Clipboard history can store up to 25 items
Those items can be text, HTML, and bitmap graphics only
Each item must be 25 MB or smaller

The Clipboard will still work normally with items that do not meet those criteria. But unsupported items will not appear in Clipboard history.
Use Clipboard history
With Clipboard history enabled, normal paste operations--perhaps by typing CTRL + V--will work as before: When you do so, the last...