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Grandpa Was A Carpenter
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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The clipboard on the computer I use to access all remote systems I constantly work with is broken. It works again after a reboot, but for a rather short period of time only; it stops working again within minutes.
As in, type in a few plain-text characters anywhere (like Notepad), highlight a few characters, Copy, and then Paste. Nothing gets pasted, as if nothing ever got copied in the first place. Doesn't matter what app it is, or whether it's plain text or a file or an image.
I've come across numerous articles with titles along the lines of "8 ways to get the Windows clipboard working again"...and all 8 methods fail to solve the problem. Other machines (accessed over RPD) can copy things "locally", but as soon as it needs to cross boundaries and bring something over on the local system, it's broken.
I use the clipboard dozens of times an hour, day in, day out. Having it not working is seriously impeding productivity, to the point where I'm thinking reinstalling the whole damned OS might be the only solution. This is insane.
Anyone got a 9th way to try to solve this?
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I know a bit about the clipboard because I've struggled with automating it.
I have a few suggestions that I will try to work you through but they will entail using my web site / web app (password manager -- known as C'YaPass).
It's a browser app that generates passwords for you and copies them to your clipboard.
I'm active here and a real person here on CP so hopefully you'll try this out. (ie - I'm not a nefarious hacker).
1. Go to C'YaPass : Never type a password again[^]
2. follow the steps as if you're creating a password. a) add a new site key b) draw a pattern
3. When you draw a pattern you'll see a password autogenerate in the lower right text box.
When that password is generated it is copied to your clipboard.
Try pasting it somewhere (text editor or something.
4. If that doesn't work, click the [clipboard icon] button (next to the [Delete] button).
I had to implement that special button for Mac platform. It wouldn't do the auto-clipboard thing.
After all that, report back here and let me know what you find.
FOSS -- All the source is Fully Open Source Software
All the code to my C'YaPass app (in various forms - C#, Java, Kotlin, Swift, HTML5/JS, etc.) is all OPEN SOURCE and I will guide you to the source code of what it is doing to copy to the clipboard if you like.
Good luck.
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At step 3 - when trying to paste the content of the clipboard in Notepad - nothing happens. Clicking the clipboard icon and pasting again does nothing. Changing the pattern further (and thus getting a new value copied to the clipboard, presumably) also subsequently does not paste anything.
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That is interesting. So, does it not copy/paste even on the same system? Or, does it not copy/paste across to / from a remote system?
If it doesn't work on the same system, I'm guessing that something about the local system has its clipboard functionality turned off or something.
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Yeah, even locally...boot the system, copy/paste will probably work. Start using the system as one normally would...within a few minutes, realize the clipboard's broken again. I'm never sure at what point it got back into the broken state.
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dandy72 wrote: I'm never sure at what point it got back into the broken state.
That is crazy and annoying. Now, I'm trying to think of how to provide you with small .exe that will exercise the clipboard API so you can see if it fires and is blocked or something or if it never fires.
Here's (probably) the easiest way to exercise lower level functionality to see if it works.
1. Install Linqpad (C# dev playground) LINQPad - The .NET Programmer's Playground[^]
2. Open up a new linqpad editor and add the code below.
3. Run the code and examine result
It's kind of a lot, but maybe it'll get you a step closer to discovery.
string textData = "I want to put this string on the clipboard.";
Clipboard.SetData(DataFormats.Text, (Object)textData);
From Clipboard Class (System.Windows) | Microsoft Docs[^]
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Actually, here is better code for linqpad....
void Main()
{
string textData = "I want to put this string on the clipboard.";
System.Windows.Clipboard.SetData(DataFormats.Text, (Object)textData);
}
Add that code, then
1. Press F4 (and a window will open)
2. You have to add the library PresentationCore.dll
Run the code, it _should_ copy to the clipboard.
Try pasting.
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Actually after yet another reboot, the problem seems to have gone away and has not yet come back (for the first time in maybe 5 days and as many reboots)...I'm not gonna go out of my way to intentionally try to break it. But if it does come back, I will definitely look into it. I've used the clipboard API before, in the same way you do in your little 2-liner sample, and with the way it behaved (until now) throughout the entire OS, I wouldn't be surprised if nothing got copied after SetData().
Unfortunately according to the docs, the API doesn't return anything, but could throw exceptions. I suspect it's not, in my case. If it was, either every app is anticipating exceptions and remaining completely silent about them (unlikely), or if something's not anticipating them, then I'd expect them to end up in the Windows event log - and it's clean.
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And, oh yeah, I should also say that I have a similar challenge using RealVNC and connecting to my headless Mac Mini.
In that case the clipboard works locally (on the mac) but will never copy back to my local environment. They function as two separate clipboards.
I'm on Linux and I use Remmina for remote desktop to Windows machines and there the clipboard works in unison (if I copy on my remote Win10 machine I can paste to my local Linux machine.
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This may be a dumb question, but have you checked if it's a problem with your keyboard? IOW, do the Edit | Copy,Paste menu commands work in Notepad?
/ravi
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My 5-year-old laptop recently started to do this. ZXCV keys occasionally do nothing and have to be sledgehammered before they wake up. I had to get an external keyboard as a backup.
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I also tried to copy/paste purely using the mouse. I get the same thing. After copying to the clipboard, the right-click menu shows that Paste is grayed out, indicating there's nothing on it.
Besides, copy/paste does continue to work on remote machines I'm accessing over RDP.
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I put a setting (on purpose) on my RDP so that things I copy on my Remote Desktop cannot transfer into my local clipboard.
If you have different RDP connections, maybe they have conflicting settings?
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This might be as well... We had a shared clipboard when accessing a windows server per RDP...
If you used a compatible enviroment in that moment, you could paste what I had previously copied.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Good thought, but the problem is (almost) immediately present after a reboot, and using (say) Notepad even locally, before getting any RDP session involved.
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Oi Mick ! [^]
Do i need to remind you that the Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out" [^] is the song your unconscious mind is playing now ?
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
modified 2-Nov-21 19:01pm.
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Wow so life like...btw which one was the real Mic?
I'd be surprised if that was not KR's theme song...Prop me up!
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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Kids: screen time ... what do you do with your children ? [^]
i made the choice to not have children in this life long ago, but, i have wondered, if i were a parent, now, what i would, or wouldn't, do in terms of controlling/modulating a child's computer/internet use. i think back to my childhood where i spent so much time. alone, reading books ... rather than playing sports, or hanging out with peers ... i was known as 'bookworm.'
In many ways, for child and young teen me, characters in books were as real as my peers ... something i learned to use socially to get attention Fortunately, in those years (late 1940's to early 1960's), they didn't have school psychologists.
i'm surrounded by people (Thais) who are so immersed in using the internet for constant-contact socializing, gaming, etc., that i experience them as "altered steaks" who are less aware of environmental clues, non-verbal communication, etc. And, i am sure they experience me as an "odd alien" whose even odder because he doesn't have a mobile with a camera, or internet, and, for being able to make jokes, use puns in Thai.
cheers, past-his-use-by-date bill
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Which is why I put my son into Waldorf school and he didn't touch a computer, screen (and I gave away the TV) until he was 13 or 14.
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Hi Marc,
i bet you are a great father, and, i would also bet it may take your son a few decades to fully appreciate that
i am curious how, after age 14, he has involved himself with computers.
cheers, Bill
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Thankfully my kids have their own kids and they can worry about it!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Yes, but what chance do they have against all the propaganda ministers and indoctrinators in the world?
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Like me they are teaching their grommets to be cynical and question everything. It is the law makers that they worry about.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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It was about a week back.
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