The short answer is that Windows 10 does not include the clipboard viewer.  The long answer(s) are:

A) COPY CLIPBRD.EXE FROM A WINDOWS XP COMPUTER:

  1. You can download the windows-10-clipboard-viewerWindows XP Clipboard Viewer from HERE or you can just copy C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CLIPBRD.EXE from any Windows XP computer.
  2. Put CLIPBRD.EXE into C:\PROGRAM FILES (x86)\ on your Windows 10 computer
  3. Create a shortcut if you wish, or just double click it
  4. Ignore the error about the CLIPBOARD SERVICE IS NOT STARTED and expand the minimized window in the corner to see what is in your clipboard

B) USE A CLIPBOARD VIEWER ALTERNATIVE:

Do a Bing / Google search for this but I can suggest Clipboard Master or ClipMagic or Ditto as three alternatives.


10 Comments

windows update error 80070103 · June 16, 2019 at 9:48 pm

I tried to do this on my system and it is working. The given article is really very useful and good for the windows users.

doniboyd · November 13, 2018 at 1:54 pm

Which is better, Office 365 or say MS Office 2016 and why? I just downloaded your Clipboard Viewer: I haven’t checked it out yet. Oh, and why did MS leave out their Clipboard Viewer; was it by design or why? Again, thank you for this. I hope it works. 🙂

Kelvin4659 · November 6, 2018 at 8:17 am

This worked on my Win10 machine!
Is there a way to see the Clipboard history? Maybe the last 5 or 10 items?

    Ian Matthews · November 6, 2018 at 11:32 am

    Yes, that is coming with the new Office 2019. I just attended MS Ignite 2018 in Florida and they demo’d it, but unfortunately it was only something I caught in passing so I don’t recall the details. But it is coming soooooon

Joan · June 20, 2018 at 3:13 pm

HELP!!!! I found download manager and a list of downloads. I had saved a few music videos to the clipboard earlier but now I can’t find them. Can you tell me how to do this and keep in mind that I am 73 years old so please keep it simple.

    Ian Matthews · June 21, 2018 at 3:50 pm

    Hi Joan; I am sorry to say that the CLIPBOARD in Windows is only for text and for pointers to objects like video files. If you were saving things to the clipboard it might be some non-Microsoft clipboard tool you had installed that we have no knowledge of. Eitherway, I don’t think we are going to be of much assistance in this case.

Sylvie Boisvert · March 15, 2018 at 7:57 am

Although your link works, I’m unable to save it anywhere and still doesn’t allow me to see anything I’ve screenshot. For example, I took a screen shot of your instructions and all that shows up when I open the clipboard is that it didn’t work

    Ian Matthews · March 15, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    Hi Sylvie;

    As I recall, the CLIPBOARD VIEWER only shows you TEXT that is in the clipboard and does not show screen grabs or other graphics.

krista fajkus · August 16, 2017 at 4:28 am

thank you, i think that’s accurate to say so far.

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