Missing Paste Function

Question

Hi,

I am no longer able to paste anywhere.  If I cut from an office document and try to paste it somewhere else, I lose the text.  If I try to copy an artists name in iTunes to another field Paste is greyed out.  I am unable to copy a URL from the address bar and paste it into an e-mail.  In short I am unable to paste anywhere.  "Drag and Drop or Copy and Paste" is enabled in Internet explorer.

I recently received an e-mail addressed to everyone in my address book which suggests a virus.  I have scanned using Norton and also Windows Defender but failed to find anything so I don't know if it's gone or if it is still hiding somewhere.

I am running Windows 7,IE9  and MS Office 2010 and I believe my PC is 64 bit although I don't know if that makes a difference.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to restore this function please?  Anyone's help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Charlie

Answer 1

Thanks for your help, it was easy to follow and only required lots of patience (lol). 

Your solution appeared to work and I discovered that an item called "Default Manager" caused the problem.  I left it unticked and was able to paste OK. 

I left the PC switched on, got up this morning and tried again. Paste no longer works - even though Default Manager is still unticked.

I have rebooted but without success.  Is it worth going through the process again?

Your help is appreciated.

You probably have a second "Default Manager" in your list. You can click the header "Startup Item" to sort the list by name.

What is the "Command" for this entry? What is its location? You need to move the column dividers to see the full text.

Answer 2

Thanks for your help, it was easy to follow and only required lots of patience (lol). 

Your solution appeared to work and I discovered that an item called "Default Manager" caused the problem.  I left it unticked and was able to paste OK. 

I left the PC switched on, got up this morning and tried again. Paste no longer works - even though Default Manager is still unticked.

I have rebooted but without success.  Is it worth going through the process again?

Your help is appreciated.

Answer 3

You appear to have some agent that interferes with Windows while in Normal Mode but not while in Safe Mode. Here is how you can find out what it is:

• Boot into Safe Mode
• Click Start
• Type the word msconfig into the Search box and press Enter
• Untick every tick mark under the Startup tab.
• Click the Services tab, then tick the box that hides the Microsoft services.
• Untick every remaining tick mark.
• Physically disconnect the machine from the Internet.
• Reboot in Normal Mode and check if copy & paste works.
• If this fixes the problem, restore the tick marks in groups of 4 until you find the culprit, then leave it unticked.
• Restore your Internet connection when finished.
• Report here what you found, for the benefit of other people with the same problem.

Answer 4

Thanks for your reply.  Paste works in Safe Mode. 

What do I do now?

Answer 5

I have seen a few similar posts before. In each case the problem was caused by some third-party software. You can find out if this is so by booting into Safe Mode, then checking copy & paste again.