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I have been experiencing problems pasting data as a metafile after a change in the display scaling (DPI settings) of my primary monitor on Windows 10. The only way to fix the problem so far is to log out and log back in.

I would like to try and restart the service responsible for clipboard management, but I can't find it. The only documentation I found refers to a ClipSrv under Windows XP...

If anyone knows how to restart the clipboard management service, I'd be very happy to hear about it!

Glorfindel
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Maxence
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9 Answers9

22

The simplest fix when clipboard functionality is not working is to open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and select Windows Explorer from the Processes tab, then click "Restart". Be sure there are no file copy processes ongoing, and any open Windows Explorer windows will close, but it should restore your clipboard functions.

Explorer Restart

Franck Dernoncourt
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coryseaman
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14

Just struggled around with my dead clipboard on Win10, build 19041.804. Finally I could get it back by

  • stop the Clipboard User Service in Services

    Windows services, clipboard user service

  • then execute the following command in an elevated Powershell terminal cmd /c "echo off |clip" and

  • restart the Clipboard User Service in Services again

Howto stop and restart the service: goto Search, type services, open Services and goto Clipboard User Services. Right click to Stop or Start the Service.

Howto open an elevated Powershell terminal: goto Search, type powershell and choose Run as Administrator.

Jeff Atwood
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Beat
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8

Since there are other posts showing how to restart it, you could also consider clearing (if the restart doesn't work or if you want to try something else): 

cmd /c "echo off | clip"
Dave
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RMK
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6

I found a way to restart the clipboard service related to Windows 10's clipboard history Win + V.

Symptoms

No entries are added to the clipboard history anymore.

Solution

  1. Open Windows Settings:

    enter image description here

  2. Toggle clipboard history off and on.

Worthwelle
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Steffen Langer
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2

As of my quick research, clipboard functionality is an integral part of Win32k.sys and there is no service responsible for the clipboard.

To address your problem, let's assume the data in the clipboard gets corrupted by some reason. Therefore, I would suggest you also to try to inspect the clipboard state after pasting the data into it.

To make the process more traceable you may try to load the data into the clipboard manually with PowerShell:

Write-Output $data | Set-Clipboard

You may also append items to the clipboard without replacing the existing content:

Write-Output $data2 | Set-Clipboard -Append

And check the clipboard content with:

Get-Clipboard

Igor Andri
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2

Before restarting your PC, try closing your applications one by one, and test the clipboard. One of the apps could open the clipboard for exclusive access which prevents other apps from modifying the clipboard content.

Michael Yutsis
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PS> Get-Service -DisplayName 'clip*' | Restart-Service

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  cbdhsvc_fbd8a      Clipboard User Service_fbd8a
majkinetor
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0

Why You Can’t Able To Clear Clipboard In Windows 10 Where Windows 10 has lots of features, on the other hand, it has also lots of errors and problems. One of the major cause is its clipboard which automatically caught our copy-pasting and we lost our main clipboards, that’s frustrating.

It happens because of the windows feature, and to fix it I’ve several methods that are easy and effective. Let’s learn it step-by-step.

Let's fix this problem now

  1. Clear Entire Clipboard History
  2. Clear Complete Clipboard Data
  3. Clear Clipboard by pressing Windows Key + V.
  4. Use Prnscrn Button.
  5. Restart Your PC.
  6. Add Clear Clipboard Option In Desktop Context Menu Using Registry
Arshad Van Persie
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0

As others have said, maybe it's related to the Clipboard User Service/cbdhsvc under Services (there will be 2, machine-wide and user-specific).

However, if anyone is doing all this work just to get Clipboard History to work, please don't. There is a much better, more stable, more lightweight, faster and more configurable option. Yes the last release is 2008, but wow I have barely seen 2/3 bugs over the last 8+ years. It's called ClipX, by BlueMars: https://bluemars.org/clipx/

If the site is down then find another one. Get ClipX (beta is good too). Immediately go to Configure via notification icon, select Hotkeys tab, delete all shortcuts and unselect all checkboxes, set only the Paste Menu (Primary) (Ctrl+Shift+V maybe?).

Also I recommend getting ClipX Limits Plugin with it (both as 32bit or both as 64 bit). And ticking the option to "Ignore text/bitmap ... larger than..." under the new Limits tab for the Configure screen.

goamn
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