Copy and Paste is not working on my Remote Desktop Connection… what’s wrong?
A very annoying occurrence that I sometimes suffer is when all of a sudden the copy and paste function stops working when I am connected to a remote machine. Turns out the problem is coming from a little process called rdpclip. Rdpclip (remote desktop clipboard) is responsible for managing a shared clipboard between your local host and the remote desktop (the process runs on the remote machine not your local host).
So what do I do when clipboard stops working?
Luckily fixing the issue is pretty straightforward and involves a few simple steps.
- Load up task manager (right click taskbar and select Task Manager)
- Go to the Processes Tab
- Select rdpclip.exe
- Click End Process
- Go to the Application Tab
- Click New Process
- Type rdpclip
- Click Ok
There, copy and paste should now work normally again.
It happens so often, this process is annoying! What do I do to fix it permanently?
Unfortunately I don’t know why rdpclip stops working nor how to fix it permanently; however, there is a way to make it easier if it happens often.
- Create a new bat file and call it whatever you want say, clipboard.bat.
- Write the following two commands on separate lines in the new bat file
- Taskkill.exe /im rdpclip.exe
- Rdpclip.exe
- Save the bat file and drag it into the toolbar quick launch section
Now whenever your copy and paste operation fails to restore it, all you need to do is click this new batch file which will kill rdpclip and restart it. Still a workaround but at least it’s a quick procedure.
hahah….such an annoying problem with such a simple fix..thanks for that, i was pulling my hair out on this one!
Yes Jack I agree, it is indeed a very annoying problem and easy to fix but only once you find out how! It’s not really that straightforward to diagnose as it doesn’t really generate any errors anywhere. Hopefully Microsoft will patch rdpclip one of these days and fix the problem permanently but until then I hope this will at least help a little bit.
This is a clever fix, but I personally prefer to use a clipboard extender and avoid the problem entirely. These programs allow you to continuously save whatever is copied or cut from your display. They’re very handy applications and add real power to the Windows clipboard. I’ve tried a few of these programs over the years, but my favorite remains ClipCache, by Xrayz Software (http://www.xrayz.co.uk/). By the way, when the clipboard stops working with ClipCache running, you can reconnect to it with a simple choice from the application’s tool menu item.
Thanks John, Will definitely check that out.
What about the new Snip tool in Windows 7?
Hi Mike, Welcome to the Blog. I haven’t use the Snip tool yet to be honest so I am not very acquainted with it, just what I read about it. Does it have issues when used via Remote Desktop?
I have not used the tool that much either. I do know that I can take a “snip” of whatever is on my screen at pretty much any time. I can then save it as a “.png”, .”jpg”, etc. Here is a link that might be helpful.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Use-Snipping-Tool-to-capture-screen-shots
Hope that helps!
Ah you were suggesting the use of the tool; sorry, thought you might have been experiencing issues with it similar to rdpclip. Yes the snip tool can be really useful in certain cases such as when you need to take a screenshot of only part of a window and not of the whole thing. Saves having to take the screenshot, paste it into some paint program and cutting and pasting and what not. Thanks for the suggestion Mike.