Clipboard History: An extremely useful but often 'forgotten' feature on Windows

When promoting Windows, Microsoft often focuses on highlighting the 'flashy' and supposedly groundbreaking features. Recently, we've seen the controversial Windows Recall or the AI-powered Copilot. But often, it's the small, less talked-about features that really make a difference in day-to-day productivity.

A good example is Clipboard History on Windows 10 and 11. This is a feature that Microsoft has not really done a good job of promoting, even though it was introduced in beta over seven years ago and officially released in the Windows 10 October 2018 update. In fact, we have a short guide on how to use Clipboard History from 2022. But if you don't have time to read, just press Win + V to get a quick understanding of how this feature works.

Traditionally, copy-pasting is done using Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V . However, this only allows you to save one item at a time. If you copy new content, the previous content will be overwritten. This is where Clipboard History comes in – it's like an 'upgraded' version of the traditional copy-paste operation.

Clipboard History can store up to 25 items , including text, images, emojis, etc. You can pin frequently used items and manually delete what you no longer need. It's also very intuitive to use: just place the cursor where you want to paste, press Win + V , and select the content you want to insert.

A big plus for those using Microsoft accounts on multiple devices is that Clipboard History can be synchronized across devices . You just need to enable this feature in Windows Settings, which is very useful if you often work flexibly between multiple machines. In addition, Clipboard History also integrates well with Microsoft PowerToys through the Advanced Paste utility - where you can enable more advanced AI features thanks to OpenAI. A third-party tool called WindowSill has also integrated with Clipboard History, expanding many new capabilities.

Personally, I use Clipboard History regularly, both on my personal and work computers. Writing articles and needing to cite old content many times becomes much faster. If I only rely on the traditional Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, my performance will definitely decrease significantly. Those who know this feature are considered to have the 'ultimate weapon' to support work, and those who have not used it will be very surprised to know the effectiveness it brings.

Clipboard History is actually an essential productivity tool in Windows. Microsoft may not think it's 'flashy' enough to promote it, but in my opinion, it's much more useful than the AI ​​features they're trying to force on users in the name of 'productivity'.

Lesley Montoya

Update 08 October 2025