In all probability, copy and paste these are the most used shortcuts in Windows, by far. These utilities allow us to copy a text or an image or even files and folders and paste them in a different place, and using it is as easy as using the shortcuts CTRL+C there CTRL+V, or even with the conceptual mouse menu. However, there are times when copying and pasting it does not work for some reason, so if this is your case, in this article we will show you what you need to do to fix it.
Copy and paste is something we all use almost every day. Both to transfer texts from one place to another and to move or copy files from one folder to another, it is one of the most widely used utilities in the world on PCs, so if it stops working, this can be a big problem when it comes to PC usability. Let’s see what we can do about it.
Make copy and paste work again on PC
There are times when copying and pasting just doesn’t work in a certain application, so it never hurts to start by restarting that application and see if copying and pasting works again. Of course, you can also completely restart your PC, and in fact this will solve the problem in most cases since these tools stop working on Windows is usually related to their service (more on that later).
Another thing you should try is alternative methods of using these tools. For example, if the shortcuts (CTRL+C and CTRL+V) don’t work for you, try the conceptual menu (by right-clicking on items, as you can see in the image above) or even , in the If this happens to you in any of the Office applications (such as Excel or Word), try the buttons you have in the menu bar.
If after trying the copy-paste above still does not work, we will practice a little more drastic solutions, and the first is to restart Windows Explorer. To do this, right-click on Start and click on Task Manager (or press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC) and, in the processes tab, search for “Windows Explorer”.
When you have located it, right-click on it and press Restart. You will see how even the Start menu disappears for a moment, but within seconds everything should be back to normal.
Another possible final solution if none of the above solutions worked is to try restarting the Windows clipboard process. Open a file explorer (WIN+E) and navigate to This PC -> Local Disk (C:) -> Windows -> System32. Look for a file called rdpclip.exe, right-click on it and select “Run as administrator”. Do the same with the file dwm.exe.
Finally, if none of this worked, you may have a crashed clipboard (something that should be fixed by simply restarting your PC), so you can also clear it manually. Right-click Start and select Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows Terminal (Admin) if you’re using Windows 11.
In the window that opens, type echo off | clip and press ENTER.
After that, check if the copy-paste works again. And, if none of that worked, you may either have RAM issues or you may need to repair your Windows installation.
