Q:
Where is the information on the Windows Clipboard kept?
A:
When you use the "copy" or "cut" command, it copies information to your Windows clipboard . That information is kept in your RAM memory until it's replaced by something else.
Unfortunately, if you're copying large items, this can adversely affect your computer's performance. How? Well, that large file, picture, object, or whatever it was that you copied is floating around in your RAM, regardless of whether it's been pasted or not.
For example, let's say I have 32 meg of free RAM. I copy a 10 meg file to my clipboard. Now, that file will continue to occupy 10 meg of RAM until something else is placed on the clipboard, the clipboard is purged, or I restart my computer.
So what can you do?
The simplest thing would be to just copy something small to your clipboard. Maybe copy a blank space in a word processor to your clipboard or possibly a short sentence. Anything small is fine. Since your clipboard can only hold one item at a time, the old 10 meg file is replaced with the new small file.
You could also open the Clipboard Viewer, hit the Edit menu, then Delete. This will quickly purge the clipboard contents.
You can get to the clipboard viewer by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools . It should be under there if it's installed (it's not always installed).
