Every person working with a computer, whether he wants it or not, constantly encounters such a concept as a “clipboard” (more precisely, a clipboard). What is most sad, not everyone imagines what it is, although, in general, they understand its functions.
Main purpose
Let us first consider what functions are assigned to this component of the system. Probably, there is no need to explain that it is activated at the time of executing the Copy, Cut, and Paste commands (corresponding keyboard shortcuts are Ctrl + C, Ctrl + X and Ctrl + V).
In other words, almost everyone imagines that information is copied somewhere and stored somewhere for future use. Some people think that a buffer is a kind of virtual storage. Absolute fallacy. It is enough to ask only one question: where is the buffer in this case located? Alas, none of ordinary users will give a clear, intelligible answer. Now we will consider what it really is.
What is a clipboard?
In principle, a lot of scientific definitions can be given. As a rule, all of them say that the buffer is a kind of intermediate storage provided for storing temporary data either by the program itself or by the operating system. Does it look a little fancy?
Simply put, a buffer is a reserved part of the memory hidden from the user's eyes, in which the currently used piece of information is stored. It is simply overwritten in a specific area (in a special file). Most interestingly, the information copied or cut out at the moment is stored in the clipboard constantly and can be used to paste into other parts of the program or even into other applications, but only until a new fragment is copied there. It simply replaces the old data. It goes without saying that after rebooting the “OS” all data from the buffer is deleted.
Where is the clipboard located?
Now let's look at the location of the clipboard. In different versions of Windows, various files are mapped to it.
For example, in Windows XP, the file responsible for the operation of the clipboard is called clipbrd.exe (short for the English term clipboard) and is located in the System32 folder of the Windows main directory. An interesting fact is that it can be opened as a regular executable file and easily view the contents. For this, you can use third-party utilities.
In the operating systems that replaced Windows XP (starting with Vista and above), the file is called clip.exe. The clipboard is located at the same address. But here, similar actions working in the “ekspiska” cannot be done with it. The developers created it so that the user simply could not open it. But when you hover over the file, only a pop-up message (tooltip) appears, containing a brief description of the file, the name of the organization (Microsoft), version and creation date. As already clear, it is impossible to view the contents of the buffer.
Do I need to clean the clipboard and how to do it?
Now consider the moment associated with cleaning. A buffer is a memory area that is designed to store quite large amounts of data. What can I say, after all, many were faced with the option of cutting and subsequent moving data with impressive volumes of several tens, or even hundreds of gigabytes.
As a rule, at the end of all operations and processes, the system displays a message that the fragment is too large and asks for confirmation to temporarily save the object (s) for working with other applications. If this information is not needed in the future, you can refuse to save it. In this case, the buffer will be cleared automatically. Sometimes a direct confirmation message may be issued.
The same goes for rebooting a computer system. After restarting, the clipboard is also cleared.
However, for practical use, there is an easier way. For example, a user copied dozens of images simultaneously to a clipboard from some document. It is clear that they occupy a much larger volume than regular text. In this case, you can simply select one word or even one letter or symbol from the text and simply copy it.
As mentioned above, this letter will replace all the pictures that were previously in the buffer. However, it is worth paying attention to one nuance. Since the information in the buffer is stored on the system disk, it accordingly takes up a certain space. With modern hard drives with terabytes of memory and the presence of a sufficiently large free space, the buffer does not have a special effect on the performance of the system. But if the hard drive is smaller, you should seriously consider cleaning.
This is especially true for situations when less than 10% of free space is left on the system disk. This is inherent in the "OS". It is believed that for its normal functioning the system partition should contain at least 10% of free space of its volume (in this case, it refers only to the system drive, and not the entire hard drive with the total volume of logical partitions).
Conclusion
So we figured out what's what. From all of the above, any user can conclude that the buffer is part of the system disk space on which the fragmented information used is stored.
It remains to add that in Vista and above, you cannot view the file. And it is right. Even in XP, you should not try to edit its contents while viewing, since such actions can lead to unpredictable consequences and, as a result, to the complete inoperability of the entire system as a whole.