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Clipboard History and Managers

How to access and use clipboard history to paste things you copied earlier

Normally, your clipboard holds one thing at a time. Copy something new and the old thing vanishes. Clipboard history fixes that by remembering everything you copy, so you can go back and paste something from five copies ago. Windows has this built in. Mac does not, but there are great free tools that add it.

Windows has a built-in clipboard history feature. It is genuinely one of the best hidden features in the OS.

Enabling clipboard history:

  1. Press Win + V
  2. If it is not enabled yet, Windows will show a prompt asking you to turn it on – click Turn on

Or enable it manually: go to Settings > System > Clipboard and toggle Clipboard history on.

Using clipboard history:

  1. Copy things as you normally would with Ctrl + C
  2. When you want to paste something older, press Win + V instead of Ctrl + V
  3. A small panel pops up showing your recent copies
  4. Click the item you want to paste

The panel shows text, images, and links. Each entry shows a preview so you can find what you need.

Pinning items:

If there is something you paste frequently (like an email address or phone number), pin it:

  1. Press Win + V to open clipboard history
  2. Click the three-dot menu (...) on the item
  3. Click Pin

Pinned items stay in your history even when you clear the rest or restart your computer.

Clearing clipboard history:

  1. Press Win + V
  2. Click Clear all to remove everything (pinned items stay)

Or go to Settings > System > Clipboard and click Clear under "Clear clipboard data."

Syncing across devices:

In Settings > System > Clipboard, you can enable Sync across your devices. This lets you copy on one Windows PC and paste on another signed into the same Microsoft account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does clipboard history save things after I restart?▾

On Windows, unpinned items are cleared on restart, but pinned items persist. With Maccy on Mac, your history persists across restarts by default (it stores history in a local database). Raycast also persists clipboard history across restarts.

Is clipboard history a security concern?▾

It can be. Clipboard history stores everything you copy, including passwords and sensitive text. Most clipboard managers (including Windows built-in and Maccy) do not store items copied from password managers by default, or they clear sensitive items after a short time. You can also manually clear your clipboard history when needed. Avoid clipboard sync across devices if you regularly copy sensitive information.

Can I search through my clipboard history?▾

Yes. On Windows, the Win + V panel has a search bar at the top. Maccy supports searching by typing right after opening the popup. Raycast has full-text search across your clipboard history. This is one of the biggest advantages of clipboard history – you can find that thing you copied three hours ago.

How much does my clipboard history store?▾

Windows keeps the last 25 items by default. Maccy defaults to 200 items (configurable up to 999). Raycast stores a large history with no hard limit in practice. Older items are dropped as new ones are added, unless you pin them.

Does clipboard history work with images and files?▾

On Windows, Win + V supports text, HTML, and images up to 4 MB per item. Maccy supports text, images, and file references. Raycast supports text, images, files, and rich content. Files themselves are not stored – just a reference to them, so if you delete the file, the clipboard entry will not work.