How to Bring Up Clipboard History in Windows 11

Whenever you copy something on a Windows PC or laptop, be it a piece of text, a hyperlink, or an image, it goes to a temporary storage area called the Windows Clipboard. You might like to access the Windows 11 Clipboard history to see and access items you copied earlier, and Windows makes this quite simple, with an easy keyboard shortcut for instant access to Clipboard history.

This guide looks at how to enable Clipboard history in Windows 11 and how to access it whenever you need.

How to Enable Clipboard History in Windows 11

Before you’re able to access your Windows 11 Clipboard history, you first need to make sure the feature is switched on. This can be done quite quickly and easily via the Windows Settings menu. Here’s all you need to know, one step at a time:

Step 1. Use the “Windows” + “I” keyboard shortcut to access the Settings menu. Alternatively, just click on the “Start” button and find the Settings icon from there.

Step 2. Click on “System” and then scroll down to select “Clipboard.”

Step 3. Make sure that the switch next to “Clipboard history” is toggled to the “On” position. This will enable the Clipboard history feature, so you can save multiple items to your Clipboard and access older items even after copying new ones.

How to Access Your Windows 11 Clipboard History

As long as the Clipboard history feature is active, you’ll be able to bring up your Clipboard history at any time to see a full list of up to 25 items that you’ve copied during that session. There are two main ways to access the Clipboard history.

The first method is to use a keyboard shortcut.

Step 1. Press the “Windows” and “V” keys together to bring up the Clipboard history box.

You can then scroll through the list to see all of the items you’ve copied recently or earlier in your user session. Press the “Clear all” button if you want to clear the Clipboard history at any time, or click on any individual item in the list to paste it in your active window. You can also “Pin” the most important items to the list so they won’t be removed.

The second way to access the Windows 11 clipboard history is as follows:

Step 1. Open a Microsoft program like Word or Excel and find the “Clipboard” button, which is usually situated in the ribbon at the top of the screen.

Step 2. Click the button to make a Clipboard window appear at the side.