Clear Windows XP Clipboard
The Windows clipboard is a valuable piece of technology that makes it easy to transport data between programs. Of course, all of it is stored in your computer's memory, and memory can get filled fast. This article will help you clear off any data on your computer's clipboard.
Contents
Steps
- Open the Windows XP start menu by clicking the Start button or by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard (if applicable). If you are using Boot Camp on a Mac along with a Macintosh keyboard, the equivalent of the Windows key would be the Command key.
- Open the Run command window by clicking "Run..." on the start menu. Of course, you can skip both steps 1 and 2 by simply pressing the Windows key + R.
- In the command window, type in "clipboard" (Clipbrd or Clipbrd.exe in Windows XP Service pack 3). This is the Windows Clipboard Viewer, which might be called the "ClipBook Viewer" or "Clipbrd" on your machine. Click "OK" or hit Enter on your keyboard when finished.
- Near the top of the Clipboard Viewer will be a graphical toolbar, and one of the icons will be a black X. If you have nothing on your clipboard, this image will be greyed out and inaccessible.
- If you are ready to delete whatever was on the clipboard, click "Yes".If it is not greyed out, click the X button. Whatever is on the clipboard will be deleted permanently.
Tips
- The Clipboard Viewer is, in fact, a real program. For easy access to it, you can create a shortcut of it on your desktop or other frequently accessed area.
- If you don't want to have any material lost when you clear the clipboard, go into the Clipboard Viewer's File menu and click "Save As...". You can now save this data to an area of your hard drive for safekeeping.
- These steps can be used with other Windows OSes, but they may work a little differently.
Warnings
- At worst, you will have to re-access the material that was on the clipboard and copy (or cut) it again. Make sure you will not need this material in the future.
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