ctrl-c, ctrl-v not working on Windows 7

Question

I'm trying to use my Windows 7 PC, and for some reason, Ctrl-C to copy and Ctrl-V to paste only work intermittently.

I have a third-party clipboard viewer installed, so I can see when Ctrl-C doesn't copy to the clipboard (there's no new entry) and also when Ctrl-V pastes glarp (the cursor moves, sometimes several lines) instead of what's on the clipboard.

I've checked the keyboard and mouse drivers, run a system scan, checked the event log and a bunch of other things I've seen online, and haven't found a resolution.

Any other ideas for things to check or try?

Answer 1

You might want to check carefully any programs with clipboard-related functionality. I use a program called TinyGrab that takes screenshots and then puts a URL to them in the clipboard, and in older versions sometimes it would crash out and the clipboard would stop working entirely. I'm not sure how this happens, but it did.

Answer 2

You say that Ctrl+V makes the cursor move, but doesn't paste what's on the clipboard. If you doubt what's on the clipboard, open up windows notepad and press Ctrl+V. If the clipboard contains text, you'll see it. If it just seems to make the cursor move, the the clipboard has some spaces, tabs, and/or linebreaks. Believe it. It seems likely that something is interfering with the clipboard, quite possibly your clipboard utility. Does this behavior continue when it isn't running? Not all clipboard utilities are good about not interfering. I know, because I wrote one, and I sent to a lot of trouble to make sure that I stayed out of the way of the primary copy/paste activity.

Answer 3

For me, Ctrl+V does not work simultaneously with ScreenGrab Pro in Win7. I checked several times, and this was the reason.

If that is not your issue, go to Control Panel, uninstall keyboard driver and restart the computer.

Answer 4

Try crtl+shift+c first . Then ctrl+c will work.