Lost paste option

This should have been an easy one for me to figure out but alas..I'm stumped...never ran into something like this before

prt scr - copy/paste have stopped working. Example: I can highlight a single word in notepad, right click and select copy but when it comes to pasting, even within the same document the paste option is grayed out. Same thing happens with URL's and everything else I've tried. Trying prt scr also nets no results. I hit the key, open ms paint, irfanview, etc. and go to edit paste and paste is grayed out. ctrl + c/ctrl + v doesn't work either.

Have rebooted, cleaned all temp files and ran a spyware scan, no problems found. It was all working fine early this morning. I have not installed anything today or changed any settings. The only other thing I could think to check was internet security settings - "Drag and drop or copy and paste files" but the setting is still enabled.

Ideas? Maybe something in the registry got foobered during one of my reboots earlier today? I dunno....I'm grasping at straws here..lol

OS -> XP Home SP2 (up to date)

 

Hum, the only time I've ever seen the clipboard stop working is due to a virus, I think Blaster screwed up the clipboard when it was running. Clearly you don't have Blaster, or you'd know about it! I know it seems a silly thing to be suggesting but are you virus free?

Other than the malware aspect theres nothing I can think of, I'm afraid

 

No office products installed...and it was the darnedest thing...just happened out of the blue. I searched the KB articles before starting this thread but didn't find an answer. If I didn't use copy/paste so often I wouldn't sweat it just yet but I use it ALL the time....URL's, color codes, paste as new image when working on a graphic...I can't even open a plain old jpeg in something simple like irfanview and edit - copy -edit - grayed out......

System restore is turned off to save on my precious disc space...

 

hrmm...I ran a scan this morning and all was fine but I don't recall now that I think about it if it was before or after I ran into the problem. Will run AV scan now to double check.

 

I'm clutching at thin air. Like Halo MSO may have messed up the clipboard, try repairing word; or it's a virus GATOR has been known to cause the problem you describe.

{EDIT} Forget the MSO part since yo don't have office installed.

 

Just to try the following: bring up clipboard from the run box.

clipbrd

If you have a minimized box within the clipboard, maximize it.

Then select some text, and hit ctrl + c

Does it show up, within clipboard?

For the rest, I can only think of something must have modified a policy within the registry.

Or perhaps a system restore....last resort....

 

Had the virus scan run while I was eating dinner...system still comes back clean. Have trend micro scan (virus & maleware) running now...nothing has popped so far.

@ theefool...tried what you suggested, clipboard popped right up - selected some text - ctrl + c nothing happened so I tried edit - paste but of course, paste is grayed out.

 

My computer is possessed!!! I was just checking something in the admin control panel and without giving it a thought I selected some text then copy/pasted it into the search box....it worked! Huh? What?

I just tried copy/paste & prt scr into irfanview, OE & the clipboard viewer and they all seem to be working now. I don't get it...

After the trend scan is done (it's at 72%) I'll reboot and see what happens...this is really odd.

 

Nothing unusual under the eventlog?

 

Scan is done, results as expected.


prt sct & copy/paste are still working after reboot. Go figure....just one of those mysterious flukes I guess.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

 

@ theefool..nope! That was one of the first things I checked when this all started.

@ Halo....you see? That's what I've been saying right along

Will see what tomorrow brings when I boot up in the morning...hopefully whatever the fluke was it'll stay gone.

 

The old oxymoron, Microsoft Works.

Steve

 

One last follow up...everything still seems to be in working order this morning so I'm breathing a big sigh of relief.

@ Halo...thanks for your vote of confidence and even though I know just as well as anyone else here that 'stuff happens' I would have been extremely shocked if my system was infected with something. Oh! lol I have a parts list for upgrades I want to do

@ matacumbie...how poetic! LOL

 

Hello,
Glad the problem has been resolved. Occurs to me if you do a lot of copynpaste that you could usefully download a freeby called YankeeClipperIII.
Thats the free version although there is also a paid version - I use and prefer the freeby and it is far superior to the windows wimpy clipboard.
Cheers
Robert