Office Clipboard shows icon(s) when first opened, and can't paste XP clipboard contents

Hi,

I'm using Windows XP Home SP2 and Office 2003, a wired keyboard
and using Word 2003 as my email editor.

When I try to copy from the internet and paste into Outlook all I get
is an icon rather than the text/picture I've copied (Ctrl-C) from the
net. This happens everytime if Outlook/Office is closed when I make my
selection. However, if Outlook/Office is open when I make my selection
then the selection pastes as expected. I'm pretty sure this didn't use
to happen, and it doesn't happen when I use Windows 2000 SP4 and
Office XP/2002 at work.

Is there an option to allow this, or is it a bug or something that
wipes out the clipboard when I open Office? I would expect that
the XP clipboard is separate from Office and should contain whatever
I copy under any circumstance. Therefore I have to assume that
Office isn't handling the data from the XP clipboard properly when
opening. When I first open Outlook, if I look in the clipboard I can
see anywhere from 1-4 icons. There's a blue one with a green arroe
like a floopy insert icon, then there are up to 3 other Yellow floppy
icons one with a green checkmark, one with a red cross (X), and one
plain yellow floppy icon.

I thought I'd read something about the first entry in the Office
clipboard getting mangled or deleted or something when Office opens,
but I can't recall where. Anyway this is really driving me
crazy, if you can help me I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Norm

Since the issue occurs only when you start the application then the problem
lies in a third-party add-in that is using the Clipboard. Based on your
description it's using it to add icons to a toolbar/menu command.

What you need to do is find the add-in causing the problem and then
determine if you actually need to utilize the add-in. If not then you can
disable it. If you do need it then unforunately you'll have to live with the
issue since the developer of the add-in is the one who carelessly opted to
use the Clipboard without first preserving the contents and then returning
the content after the add-in was finished using the Clipboard and there's
not a lot you can do about it. :-(

Thanks for replying, I have no idea what might be trying to paste into
Outlook, but when I open Word/Excel/Powerpoint their clipboards are
empty -- only Outlook has between 1 and 4 icons in the clipboard,
which means when I copy something and paste it into Outlook the new
copy ends up 2nd to 5th in the list and the first object (an icon)
gets pasted. Very frustrating as I copy lots of internet stuff to
Outlook. I'll keep looking.

You can find Outlook's add-ins by going to Tools | Options | Other |
Advanced Options | COM Add-ins.

FWIW, Norton's Anit-Spam plug-in uses my Clipboard in Outlook. Since that's
farily important to me I live with it. But I just start Outlook in the
morning and leave it running all day. You may find you need to do the same.

Beth bought the farm 3 years ago. Instead of replying to a 3 year old post,
send flowers.

[texasfay]

I had the same problem and the cause was eDatasecurity, which appears to be an Acer addon. Thanks Beth for helping me find the culprit.

Beth Melton is still very much with us and posting occasionally as her life
allows.

Reports of her demise are entirely premature.