Windows Clipboard in 2026: What's Shipped and What's Missing

Copy and paste on Windows in 2026 is spread across four Microsoft features. Win+V clipboard history keeps your last 25 copies; PowerToys Advanced Paste changes the format of what you paste; Phone Link passes text and images between an Android phone and your PC; and Recall, on Copilot+ PCs, lets you search snapshots of your screen. None of them keeps copied files, and Win+V still forgets unpinned items when you restart.

Microsoft hasn't published a roadmap for the clipboard, so this page sticks to what has shipped and the gaps that remain.

What Microsoft has shipped

Win+V clipboard history

Clipboard history is off until you turn it on, either from the Win+V panel or under Settings > System > Clipboard. Once on, it keeps up to 25 items of text, HTML or bitmap images, up to 4 MB each. You can pin items, and pinned items survive a restart; everything else is cleared. On Windows 11 the same panel also has tabs for emoji, GIFs, kaomoji and symbols.

The optional Clipboard history across your devices setting syncs text, not images or files, between PCs signed in to the same account. What Win+V actually opens on Windows 11 walks through the panel, and what Microsoft's clipboard sync covers explains the sync.

PowerToys Advanced Paste

Advanced Paste is part of Microsoft's free PowerToys. Press Win+Shift+V to open its window, or Win+Ctrl+Alt+V to paste plain text directly. It can paste as Markdown or JSON, paste clipboard content as a .txt, .html or .png file, extract text from an image with local OCR, and transcode audio or video to .mp3 or .mp4. All of these run on your PC without AI.

Paste with AI is separate and off by default. To use it you add a model provider, either an online one (OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Mistral, Google or Azure AI Inference, each needing an API key) or a local one (Foundry Local, Ollama or Phi Silica). When you use it, your clipboard text and prompt go to the provider you chose. Local versus cloud models in Advanced Paste covers that choice.

Phone Link cross-device copy and paste

Phone Link can share copied text and images between your PC and a supported Android phone or Surface Duo. Microsoft lists Samsung devices running One UI 2.1 or later and some HONOR, OPPO, ASUS, vivo and Xiaomi models. Turn it on in Phone Link under Settings > Features > Cross-device copy and paste. Images over 1 MB are resized, and iPhones aren't supported.

What you copy on the phone arrives on the PC as an ordinary clipboard copy. The Phone Link clipboard privacy checklist covers what to check before turning it on.

Recall and Click to Do

Recall isn't a clipboard feature, but it overlaps with one. On Copilot+ PCs it saves snapshots of your screen and lets you search them in natural language. Microsoft says snapshots are stored and analysed only on the device, encrypted, never sent to Microsoft, and saved only after you opt in. Click to Do, which runs on a snapshot, lets you copy text from it.

So text you saw, whether or not you copied it, can be found again in Recall if it's on. Recall versus the clipboard compares what each keeps.

What's still missing

These are the gaps people most often hit with the built-in tools:

1. Copied files aren't kept. Win+V stores text, HTML and bitmaps. Copy a file in File Explorer and it can be pasted once, but it never appears in history. See why Windows clipboard history doesn't store files.
2. History doesn't survive a restart. Only pinned items do. Anything else you copied before rebooting is gone.
3. 25 items is a short memory. On a busy day, something you copied this morning can drop off by lunch.
4. Large items are skipped. Anything over 4 MB, such as a big screenshot, isn't added to history at all.
5. No user-controlled exclusions. Apps such as password managers can mark their copies so Windows keeps them out of history and sync, but there's no setting for you to exclude an app yourself.
6. No drag-out. You can paste from Win+V, but you can't drag an item from it into another app.
7. Sync is text only. Images and files don't sync between PCs, and phone sync through Phone Link is Android only.

Filling the gaps today

Third-party clipboard managers exist mostly because of that list. Ditto and CopyQ keep a searchable history that survives restarts. Edge Drop, made by the team behind this site, is a shelf at the edge of the screen that keeps copied files as well as text and images, and lets you drag images and files out into other apps. Every clipboard tool built into Windows, ranked is a good place to start if you'd rather stay with Microsoft's own tools.

FAQ

Is Microsoft increasing the Win+V 25-item limit?

Microsoft hasn't announced any change. Its documentation still lists 25 items, 4 MB per item, and clearing on restart except for pinned items.

Does PowerToys Advanced Paste send my clipboard to the cloud?

Only if you turn on Paste with AI and choose an online provider. Plain text, Markdown, JSON, file and image-to-text pastes run locally.

Can I sync my clipboard with an iPhone?

Not with Phone Link's cross-device copy and paste, which supports Android phones and Surface Duo. Windows' own clipboard sync works only between PCs.

Related reading

• Windows 11 Built-In Clipboard Tools, Ranked
• Can PowerToys Replace a Clipboard Manager?
• Windows Clipboard History Limit: Can You Go Past 25?
• Phone Link Copy and Paste Not Working? How to Fix It

Sources

• Using the clipboard (Microsoft Support) — Win+V limits, formats, restart behaviour and sync.
• Clipboard Formats (Microsoft Learn) — formats apps use to keep data out of history and cloud sync.
• Advanced Paste (Microsoft Learn) — shortcuts, local paste actions, Paste with AI providers.
• Seamlessly transfer content between your devices (Microsoft Support) — Phone Link cross-device copy and paste.
• Manage Recall for Windows clients (Microsoft Learn) — Recall snapshots, local storage, opt-in and Click to Do.

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