Copy-paste is one of the essential functions of a computer. It becomes more important and essential when you are a student or a working professional. From basic school assignments to corporate presentations, copy-paste comes in handy to innumerable people. But what if the copy paste function stops working on your computer? How are you going to cope up? Well, we get that life is not easy without copy-paste!

Whenever you copy any text, image, or file, it is temporarily saved in the clipboard and gets pasted wherever you want it to. You can perform copy-paste within a few clicks only. But when it stops working and you can’t figure out why we come to the rescue.

8 Ways to Fix Copy Paste not working on Windows 10

Method 1: Run Remote Desktop Clipboard From System32 Folder

In this method, you will need to run a few exe files under the system32 folder. Follow the steps to perform the solution –

Contents

  • 8 Ways to Fix Copy Paste not working on Windows 10
  • Method 1: Run Remote Desktop Clipboard From System32 Folder
  • Method 2: Reset rdpclip Process From Task Manager
  • Method 3: Clear Clipboard History
  • Method 4: Reset rdpclip.exe using Command Prompt
  • Method 5: Check Concerning Applications
  • Method 6: Run System File Checker and Check Disk
  • Method 7: Check for viruses and malware
  • Method 8: Troubleshoot Hardware and Devices

  1. Open File Explorer (Press Windows Key + E) and go to the Windows folder in Local Disk C.

  2. Under the Windows folder, search for System32. Double click on it.

  3. Open the System32 folder and type rdpclip in the search bar.

  4. From the search results, right-click on the rdpclib.exe file and then click on Run as administrator.

  5. In the same manner, search for the dwm.exe file, right-click on it and select Run as administrator.

  6. Now that you have done that, restart your computer to apply the changes.

  7. Now perform a copy-paste and check if the problem is solved. If not, move on to the next method.

Method 2: Reset rdpclip Process From Task Manager

The rdpclip file is responsible for the copy-paste feature of your Windows PC. Any problem with copy-paste means that there is something wrong with the rdpclip.exe. Therefore, in this method, we will try to make things right with the rdpclip file. Follow the given steps to perform the resetting of the rdpclip.exe process:

  1. First of all, press the CTRL + ALT + Del buttons simultaneously. Select Task Manager from the list of options that pop up.

  2. Search for rdpclip.exe service under the processes section of the task manager window.

  3. Once you find it, right-click on it and press the End Process button.

  4. Now reopen the task manager window. Proceed to the File section and select Run new task.

  5. A new dialog box opens up. Type rdpclip.exe in the input area, checkmark “Create this task with administrative privileges” and press the Enter button.

Now restart the system and see if the ‘copy-paste not working on Windows 10’ problem is solved.

Method 3: Clear Clipboard History

  1. Search for Command Prompt from Start Menu search bar then click on “Run as administrator“.

  2. Type the following command into cmd and hit Enter:

cmd /c”echo off|clip

  1. This will successfully clear the clipboard history on your Windows 10 PC.

  2. Reboot your PC to save changes and see if you’re able to fix copy paste not working issue. 

Method 4: Reset rdpclip.exe using Command Prompt

We will be resetting the rdpclip.exe in this method too. This time, the only catch here is we will tell you how to do it from the command prompt.

  1. First, open the elevated Command Prompt. You can either get it from the start search bar, or you can launch it from the Run window too.

  2. When the command prompt is open, type the command given below.

 taskkill.exe /F /IM rdpclip.exe

  1. This command will stop the rdpclip process. It is the same as we did in the last method by pressing the End task button.

  2. Now type rdpclip.exe in the Command Prompt and hit Enter. This will re-enable the rdpclip process.

  3. Perform the same steps for the dwm.exe task. The first command you need to type for dwm.exe is:

taskkill.exe /F /IM dwm.exe

Once it has been stopped, type dwm.exe in the prompt and press enter. The resetting of rdpclip from the Command Prompt is much easier than the former. Now restart your computer and see if you are able to fix copy paste not working on Windows 10 issue. 

Method 5: Check Concerning Applications

If none of the above-mentioned methods works for you, there might be a chance that your system’s performance is all good but the problem may be from the application’s end. Try performing copy-paste on any other tool or application. For example – If you were working on MS Word previously, try using copy-paste on Notepad++ or any other application and see if it works.

If you are able to paste on another tool, then the former application may be having a problem. Here you can try restarting the application for a change and see if you can copy-paste now.

Method 6: Run System File Checker and Check Disk

  1. Search for Command Prompt in the Windows search bar, right-click on the search result, and select Run As Administrator.

  2. Once the Command Prompt window opens up, carefully type the following command and press enter to execute. 

sfc /scannow

  1. The scanning process will take some time so sit back and let the Command Prompt do its thing.

  2. Execute the below command if your computer continues to run slow even after running an SFC scan:

chkdsk C: /f /r

Note: If chkdsk cannot run now, then to schedule it on the next restart press “Y“.

  1. Once the command finishes processing, reboot your PC to save changes. 

Method 7: Check for viruses and malware

In case, your computer system gets infected with malware or virus, then copy-paste option might not work properly. To prevent this, it is recommended to run a full system scan using a good and effective antivirus which will remove malware from Windows 10.

Method 8: Troubleshoot Hardware and Devices

The Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter is a built-in program used to fix the hardware or device issues faced by users. It helps you to figure out the problems which might have occurred during the installation of new hardware or drivers on your system. Whenever you run the automated hardware and device troubleshooter, it will identify the issue and then resolve the issue it finds out.

Once you are done with the troubleshooting, restart your computer, and see if it worked for you. If nothing works then you can try to run System Restore to restore your Windows to a previous time when everything was working correctly.

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We get that things get tedious when you can’t use Copy-Paste. Therefore, we have tried to fix copy paste not working on Windows 10 issue here. We have included the best methods in this article and hope that you found your potential solution. If you still feel some problem somehow, we will be happy to help. Just drop a comment down below pointing to your issue.