Windows 10 Clipboard History Just Got Better
Windows 10 has a built-in clipboard history, and it will soon get much better with the upcoming release of Windows 10 Build 20185, which is currently available for testing by Windows Insiders.
We’ve already talked about the history of the clipboard, and here’s my confession: by “we” I mean “me.” Although I wrote the article, I completely threw the history of the clipboard out of my head until today when I realized that: 1) it exists and 2) I did not enable it for some reason.
Oops .
So again, I want to remind you that Windows 10’s built-in clipboard history is incredibly easy to set up and access. You only need to remember one keyboard shortcut, which is very similar to CTRL + V, which you already use to copy and paste. Press Windows Key + V instead . When you do, you will see this popup on your screen (if you haven’t enabled clipboard history yet):
Press that big blue button to turn it on – that’s all. You can also visit Windows 10 Settings > System> Clipboard to enable clipboard history, as well as Microsoft’s handy clipboard sync feature if you want this history to be consistent across your different Windows 10 systems. (Make sure you follow those Same steps for the rest of them to make sure this feature is enabled, and make sure you’re signed in with the same Microsoft account for each one.)
Now all you have to do is take a break from the soothing CTRL + V keyboard shortcut and move on to the futuristic Windows Key + V – exactly the same problem I faced when I first reported the Windows 10 Clipboard history. And if the copy and paste capabilities from history text, images or HTML is not enough to help you make the transition, Windows 10 Build 20185 will make the proposal even sweeter.
As reported by Windows Latest , Microsoft is expanding its clipboard history by adding tabs for (searchable) emojis, symbols, kaomoji, and GIFs. This seems like too much firepower for the clipboard, making it the interface you expect to see when texting a friend in whatever messaging app you use.
However, it’s a huge amount of useful firepower that will save you the hassle of looking for emojis or GIFs yourself. I can’t promise that I’ll be using these new clipboard history features every day of my life, but I’m really looking for a bunch of emojis and GIFs to chat with friends. Being able to do this for all of Windows certainly seems useful.
If you are anxious to use this new clipboard history right now, you will have to sign up for the Microsoft Windows Insider Program (via Windows Update). Once you’ve done that, subscribe to the Dev Channel updates to get Build 20185. Hopefully you won’t get anything wrong.