Permanently Disable Office 2003 Clipboard

It’s been a while since I posted a techie entry so here’s one. I’m so glad I did it!

Do you know that annoying window that opens whenever you press Ctrl+C twice? Yes, that is the Office clipboard. All Office applications have that and it’s pretty annoying. I work with Excel sheets a lot in my job and I use the copy command often. I tried hiding the clipboard through its Options but it keeps on returning after I restart my machine.

Today I was determined to get this annoying window out of my life for good.

WARNING: The procedure below includes modification of your computer’s registry. Serious problems may occur when you modify it incorrectly. Make sure to back it up before you do any changes. For the complete procedure, check this MS article.

1. Go to Start > Run. In the pop-up window, type regedit.
2. Once your registry is open, navigate to this section: HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Office > 11.0 > Common > General.
3. Look for the AcbControl key in the right panel of the window and double-click it.
4. In the window that opens, change the value data from 0 to 1 and then select Decimal. Click OK.

If you do not see the AcbControl key, do the following first before performing steps 3 and 4.

1. Right-click anywhere on the right panel of your registry window and select New > DWORD Value.
2. Give it a name of AcbControl and press Enter in your keyboard.
3. Double-click AcbControl.
4. In the window that opens, change the value data from 0 to 1 and then select Decimal. Click OK.

Now, using any MS Office Application, copy and paste stuff and you should not see the clipboard ever again.