Business Tools Blog

Guest Blog By Wes Kimmey

The other day I was copying large files from one of our SQL databases to paste into Excel. These files were about 50 or 60 thousand rows for each month and I needed to do 12 months worth. After the first 2 months, I got an error message saying that there was not enough memory to copy anything else to the clipboard. I didn’t know how to clear my clipboard so I rebooted.  Worked just fine for 2 more months worth of data. Then same message again. I knew that if I copied something to my clipboard, it stays there until I copy something else there to replace it. In my case, it was about 14 mb of data to paste into a spreadsheet. My computer was crawling.  I found these instructions for clearing my clipboard. Really sped up my computer. Works so well, I created a shortcut on my desktop so I could use it all the time. Figured you are a power user and may have had the same problem before.

Clearing Your Clipboard: Windows XP

For Windows XP

1. Begin by first clicking on the Start Button.
2. Then click on Run Icon, which will open up the Run Menu for you.
3. Locate the white area of the screen next to the word Open: in the Run Menu.
4. Now type in the abbreviated word Clipbrd and click on the OK button to launch the Program.
5. Notice how the Clipboard contains a record of your recent copy and paste inputs.
6. To empty your Clipboard, click on the word Edit located within your top tool bar area.
7. Then click on the word Delete from the pull down menu that appears.
8. Windows will ask you if you want to Clear the contents of the Clipboard.
9. Click on the Yes button to allow Windows to clear the Clipboard.
10. Notice how your former imputed information is now cleared from the Clipboard.
11. Then close the Clipbook Viewer Window to return to your Windows session.

http://www.yongar.com/2007/08/clearing-your-clipboard-windows-xp.html