Clipboard History: One of Windows Most Useful and Often Overlooked Features

Perhaps many of us have used Windows PCs for decades, but are completely unaware of "Clipboard" and how to take advantage of this useful feature to improve our work performance.

What is Clipboard History?

Simply put, the Clipboard is a storage space for items you've recently copied on Windows. This feature is available in both Windows 10 and 11. Once Clipboard History is enabled, you can access it by pressing Windows+V. The Clipboard can store up to 25 items, as long as they don't exceed 4MB.

You can use this to temporarily store text, HTML, hyperlinks, and images. However, the Clipboard is somewhat limited in that it cannot store files or folders. This limitation includes image files, but you can get around it by right-clicking on the image itself and clicking “Copy.” This works with all types of images, including files on your PC and images from your web browser. The more notable downside is that the Clipboard doesn’t let you paste text without formatting, like Ctrl+Shift+V. But of course, you can always paste the text into Notepad to remove the formatting first.

Say goodbye to copying and pasting items one by one

If you tend to copy and paste large amounts of data as part of your daily workflow, you should ditch the familiar Ctrl+V operation and take advantage of the much more useful and powerful Clipboard History.

We may have forgotten about this feature because the previous version, called “ClipBook Viewer,” was removed from Windows Vista. The new and improved Clipboard didn’t return to Windows until the October 2018 update, leaving many people unaware of its existence.

Instead of the familiar Ctrl+V, you’ll have to get used to pressing Windows+V, but it’s worth it. You can copy and paste multiple images, text snippets, and links at once, potentially saving 20–30 minutes of your workday that you’d otherwise waste flipping through tabs. Plus, you can sync your Clipboard to your phone and other Windows devices.

Pin frequently used items

If much of your work involves copying and pasting the same templates, code snippets, and links, it's time to optimize your workflow. Clipboard lets you pin frequently used items so they stay there after you shut down your PC or clear your Clipboard History.