Clipboard appears not to be working, and is inaccessible from code or windows

Question

My clipboard seems to be 'stuck' - after some time of usage of my machine it simply stops working - any software trying to access it sticks or throws an exception on Ctrl + C or Ctrl + V. The problem persists when I try to access it through the .Net framework or Win32API (an exception is thrown - something like 'Clipboard unavailable' [sorry I couldn't copy-paste it here - my clipboard doesn't work! :)])

I keep on restarting all the time!

I'll appreciate any help or leads whatsoever, thank you:)

Answer 1

I have had seen a similar issue caused by an application which installed a clipboard changed hook (SetClipboardViewer) but later hung. Because it wasn't passing on WM_DRAWCLIPBOARD messages, eventually the clipboard simply stopped operating. Even Windows Explorer drag and drop stopped working.

I suggest that next time this happens to you, you go through all non-base-Windows applications and kill them off, one by one, until the clipboard starts working again. Perhaps use Process Explorer to make sure you're getting them all.

Answer 2

looks like the old SecuRom-bug. There is a fix for that on their website.