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The functionality that the Windows clipboard provides is bare bones at best. It stores only the last string or item that you have copied and once you copy another one the previous one is not longer available.
It happened more than once that I lost a text phrase that I still needed because I accidentally copied another item to the clipboard.
It is also highly impracticable if you need to copy multiple items from a document to another, as you have to switch back and forth copying and pasting the whole time.
The Clipboard Caching utility CLCL is a small program for Windows that can store as many items in the Windows clipboard as you copy to it.
The default value is 30 items but that number can be changed in the options so that you can store more or less items.
CLCL stores everything that you throw at it, it does not really matter if you copy text or files, anything you copy is stored in the clipboard. Note that the program has the same limitations in regards to supported content as the Windows Clipboard.
The default keyboard shortcuts for copying (CTRL + C) and pasting (CTRL + V) remain untouched.
The CLCL menu with all the stored items can be accessed by pressing ALT + C instead (this can be changed in the options). The menu displays the available entries in the clipboard so that you may select an item for pasting with minimal effort.
Plugins can be used to add functionality to CLCL. Some are available on the developers homepage, they convert upper to lower case for instance, quote, put tags around it or add support for additional formats.
Pretty much anything can be configured in the program's options. Hotkeys can be changed and added and formats can be added and filtered. Clipboard Caching is a excellent software with a low memory consumption.
Please note that the program has not been updated since 2015. While that is usually an indicator of a program that is likely not to work properly anymore on newer versions of Windows, it is not the case for the clipboard manager. It works just fine on all recent versions of Windows and all the functionality it makes available is still available.
CLCL is a powerful clipboard program for Microsoft Windows devices. It is lightweight and you can customize many features of it to better address your needs.
Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.
I use ArsClip. It
– is actively developed
– has more features than CLCL.
* can copy and paste unicode words
* can paste just filename or even the file
– portable
Ditto