How to Use Clipboard History in Windows 11

Windows 11 can remember everything you've copied — not just the last item. Access your full copy history and pin items you use frequently.

In this guide (5 steps):

1.Enable Clipboard History
2.Copy multiple items
3.Open Clipboard History to paste
4.Pin frequently used items
5.Enable cross-device clipboard sync (optional)

Enable Clipboard History

~15s

Go to SettingsSystemClipboard → turn on "Clipboard History." You can also press Windows + V for the first time and Windows will offer to turn it on for you.

Copy multiple items

~15s

Use Ctrl+C normally to copy text or images. Copy a second item — it stays in history while the new item is also saved. Copy as many items as you need.

Open Clipboard History to paste

~17s

Press Windows key + V. A panel appears showing your recent clipboard items. Click any item in the list to paste it at your cursor location.

Quick Tip

You can open Clipboard History in any app — a Word document, an email, a web form. It works everywhere you can type.

Pin frequently used items

~15s

In the Clipboard History panel, hover over any item and click the pin icon (📌). Pinned items stay in the list permanently and are not cleared when you restart your computer or clear history.

Enable cross-device clipboard sync (optional)

~19s

Go to SettingsSystemClipboard → "Sync across your devices." Sign in with your Microsoft account. Copied text will be available on other Windows computers signed into the same account.

Warning

Do not copy sensitive information like passwords or bank account numbers to the clipboard if sync is enabled — it could be accessible on other devices.

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When you copy text or an image on a computer, it goes to the clipboard — but normally only one item is stored at a time. Each new copy replaces the previous one. Windows 11 includes a Clipboard History feature that changes this by remembering up to 25 recent copied items so you can go back and use any of them.

This is useful when you need to copy multiple pieces of information from one source and paste them into different places. For example, copying a name, then an address, then a phone number from a document and pasting each one into a form. Without Clipboard History, you would have to go back and re-copy each time. With it, all three items are waiting for you.

You open Clipboard History by pressing Windows key + V instead of Ctrl+V when you are ready to paste. A small panel appears showing your recent clipboard items. Click any item to paste it.

You can also pin items to the clipboard so they stay there even after you restart your computer. Tap the pin icon next to any clipboard entry to keep it permanently.

Clipboard History can also sync across your Windows devices using your Microsoft account. If you copy something on your desktop, it can be pasted on your laptop and vice versa.

This feature is turned off by default. You only need to enable it once.

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