Ctrl+C on Windows keeps one clip in a single slot. The next copy takes that slot. A longer list keeps the earlier clip.

One order produces five clips: the street address on the shop page, the phone number on the contact page, the order number in the mail, the tracking link on the carrier page, and the discount code on the checkout page. Win+V holds 25 clips, then drops the oldest clip you did not pin. A restart drops the unpinned clips that same morning. QuickBoard holds unpinned clips until the next day, up to the number in its history field. Ditto holds its clips past a restart. CopyQ holds its clips past a restart too. The mail draft still needs the street address after those later copies. The list that still has the address is the one that fits the morning. The useful differences among the four lists, on a normal Windows 11 desktop, are the search box, the pin that survives a restart, the 25-clip cap, the 500-clip starting field, the 24-hour drop for an unpinned clip, the password-manager window that is skipped, the masked secret, the plain-text paste, the image clip, the script, and the share to another computer on the same network.

Win+V keeps 25 clips, with no search box, and a restart clears every clip you did not pin. QuickBoard, Ditto, and CopyQ are separate programs with search and with clips that remain after a restart of this PC. If you paste code or copy several clips before you paste, the cap and the search box are the parts that change the paste.

What you can check without a lab

Open the list and copy five lines, an image, and a formatted heading from a browser, then see which of them return and whether a plain-text paste exists for the heading. Restart the PC and see which unpinned clips are still in the list the next morning on this machine.

Type a word from an older line you still remember, where a matching row means the program can search, with an empty field meaning you only scroll. Then copy from a password window and see whether the clip is skipped, stored in full, or stored with the characters masked.

QuickBoard in PeakFlow

QuickBoard is the clipboard tool in PeakFlow, six tools in one Windows installer, with each tool free to turn on or off, opening on Windows with Ctrl+Shift+V. The free tool includes history, copy, paste, pins, fuzzy full-text search, image clips, source tracking, edit text, and link preview, in a free download with no account and no telemetry.

The history field starts at 500 and accepts any number from 10 to 2000, with pinned clips above that cap so a newer copy does not push a pin out. Unpinned clips older than 24 hours are removed by default, with pinned clips staying past that removal. Search across the stored text is fuzzy. Plain-text paste strips the fonts. You can edit the text of a clip before the paste. A copied image can be read for text on this PC.

QuickBoard skips the copy when the window title matches 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass, KeePass, Dashlane, RoboForm, Keeper, NordPass, Enpass, Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PayPal, Windows Security, Credential Manager, or User Account Control. Secret-like text stays in the list with the characters masked. Encryption of the store is a Pro switch that starts off. Tags, collections, custom hotkeys, import and export, and AI clipboard actions are Pro as well. The download includes a 14-day Pro trial for every tool in the installer, on Windows 10 or Windows 11. Pro is $6.99 a month, or $39.99 a year, which the price page shows as $3.33 a month.

QuickBoard fits a PC where you want that cap and fuzzy search inside the PeakFlow installer, without a script editor, from the Windows build PeakFlow Setup 1.6.5, a 134 MB installer for that version. The open-source comparison is what Ditto keeps that QuickBoard and Win+V do not.

Ditto

Ditto is a free open-source clipboard program for Windows. Clips remain on this PC after a restart. Search covers that store. It can share clips with other computers on the local network, from this PC, without a cloud account for the share. It includes groups, tags, its own shortcuts, encryption, and a portable build. You set the cap, the shortcut, and the network share in Ditto's window, separate from the Win+V panel.

Ditto fits when you want that local-network share or the open-source build, and you are willing to set the shortcut and the cap yourself on this PC. The installer is on the Ditto site.

CopyQ

CopyQ is a free open-source program for Windows, Mac, and Linux, with clips in tabs and with a script you can run on a clip. You can edit a clip in CopyQ before the paste into another window. The window has more controls than QuickBoard, so the first sitting takes longer than Ctrl+Shift+V on this PC.

CopyQ fits when the script editor is the reason you installed a clipboard program at all. The installer is on the CopyQ site.

Win+V on Windows 11

Win+V is already on the PC. The panel stays off until you press Win+V and click Turn on, or switch Clipboard history to On under Settings, System, Clipboard. It keeps 25 clips, with no search box on that panel. A restart clears unpinned clips from the panel, while pinned clips stay in the panel on this PC after that restart. Text can move to another Windows PC when Sync across your devices is on for the same Microsoft account, with images staying on this PC and with no plain-text paste.

Win+V fits when you will not install a program and you only need a clip from the last few minutes under that cap of 25, with the steps in turning on clipboard history in Windows 11.

The four lists side by side

Which list matches the clip you need

Use Win+V for a clip from the last few minutes, with nothing to install, under a hard cap of 25. Use QuickBoard for fuzzy search, a cap from 10 to 2000, pins above that cap, and plain-text paste inside PeakFlow. Use Ditto for an open-source list that can share clips on the local network. Use CopyQ for tabs and a script on the clip in front of you.

Each line names a control you can open on the PC. The wider write-up is what a clipboard manager keeps after Win+V drops a clip.

Questions about these lists