Windows Vista has found a creative new way to kick me in the Jimmy

April 27, 2009 2:51 AM

Windows Vista has taken me to a new, interesting level of hell. For some reason, starting about a week ago, anything I select with the mouse -- text, even files -- automatically gets copied to the clipboard. If I select any word in this paragraph, for instance, that word will go to the clipboard and overwrite whatever I had there before. It's becoming a real headache. I can't find anything in Control Panel that deals with this feature, and I'm not finding anything on Google. How on earth do I turn this off? Thanks in advance. :)
posted by Televangelist to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Do you use an up-to-date virus scanner? Do you regularly use the computer as the Administrator user?
posted by devnull at 3:41 AM on April 27

Autocopy is a firefox addon that does this. Could some other user have installed it without your knowing?
posted by Midnight Rambler at 5:37 AM on April 27

Yeah, I would guess you installed some software that's doing this. If you can't find the software doing it, you could install ClipDiary. It keeps a log of everything you put on the clipboard. This would allow you to get back anything on the clipboard that's accidentally overwritten.
posted by hootch at 6:48 AM on April 27

This is not a built in feature of vista, so it's either a very odd bug or a third-party app.

Check the programs and features install list for any apps you don't know the function of. I'd also have a look into the mouse control/driver software, it may be under that - synaptics touchpads have an autoselect on hover, for example.
posted by ArkhanJG at 8:00 AM on April 27

Since you have Windows Vista, can't you roll your computer back to an earlier restore point, one just before last week? If you can't figure out how this started happening, that might be an option.
posted by misha at 8:18 AM on April 27

Have you tried a different mouse? I've had typing quirks like this and they were a result of a bad keyboard.
posted by wongcorgi at 9:59 AM on April 27

Does it happen elsewhere, not just in your web browser? Open notepad. Type, highlight, paste.
posted by cmiller at 10:59 AM on April 27

Sounds like X11-style behavior; do you have the TweakUI PowerToy installed (I'm not sure if it is available in Vista) or a similar application? Also, Check the accessibility options for any clipboard-related options.
posted by theclaw at 11:42 AM on April 27