After several months of working correctly, I now have the clipboard problem again.

The first clip will paste and never again.

I have no new plugins.

I tried the rename, rename Plugins folder to no avail.

Just to be absolutely sure...  Find the Nik plug-in itself, and rename it by putting a tilde (~) in front of the name to disable it.  Make sure the problem follows just the presence/absence of that plug-in.

Assuming that specific plug-in is at fault, It seems pretty clear, then... You need to contact Nik and demand an updated version to fix this problem.

-Noel

Hi Noel. Being a software developer and architect for over 20 years, I would be one of the first to say that renaming the plug-ins folder and changing it back wouldn't do anything.

But, it did.

I have no freaking idea why it worked, but it did. I can ALT+PRT SCRN all day long and Photoshop works perfectly now. Before it was a productivity nightmare.

Cheers...

You and I seem to share the same background, Keith.  I wasn't disputing that you saw what you saw; I believe you.

And if you're like me, you HATE it when the computer does something you can't explain.

I can only guess that starting Photoshop without the offending plug-in present (or some other coincidental factor that occurred when you did that) caused a setting to be changed, where it would not have done that (for some reason) as long as the plug-in was present.  It's also just hard to imagine such a setting, that would unclog the clipboard.  Lots of stuff that seems unlikely all together in one theory.

Unfortunately your particular sequence doesn't seem to be working for all others.

-Noel

It does!

Thanks!

Alan

I wish I could say mine is working. Despite having reported here that my problem had disappeared, it appears I was a bit hasty. There are times when it works fine. However, there are many times when it does not work at all. I have not managed to find any specific pattern to the clipboard behavior, but I do know that I have no third party Plug-ins running - this is a plain vanilla Photoshop CS5 install here. To complicate my life even more, I just upgraded Acrobat to version X and I find that Acrobat now seems to have a similar problem - at least when I copy to the Acrobat clipboard, its contents are not available to any other programs.

The Plug-in manufacturers have been taking a beating over this, but my theory is that there are a number of ways to stimulate this problem, Plug-ins being one. Otherwise, how could we have such wide-ranging reports here?

Steve Cavanaugh :: Technical Writer:: Coinstar, Inc.

There are quite a lot of possibilities in the Plug-Ins folder even on a vanilla setup:

3D Engines

  Photoshop3DEngine.8BI

ADM

  ADMPlugin.apl

Automate

  CropPhotosAuto.8LI

  HDRMergeUI.8BF

  WIASupport.8LI

Digimarc

    Win64

      DigiRead.8bf

      DigiSign.8bf

  Digiread

      cs.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      da.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      de.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      en_US.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      es.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      fi.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      fr.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      hu.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      it.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      ja.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      ko.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      nb.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      nl.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      pl.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      pt_BR.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      ro.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      ru.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      sv.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      tr.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      uk.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      zh_CN.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      zh_TW.lproj

        Localizable.strings

        Digisign

      cs.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      da.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      de.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      en_US.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      es.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      fi.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      fr.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      hu.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      it.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      ja.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      ko.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      nb.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      nl.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      pl.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      pt_BR.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      ro.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      ru.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      sv.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      tr.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      uk.lproj

        Localizable.strings

      zh_CN.lproj

        Localizable.strings

            zh_TW.lproj

              Localizable.strings

Effects

  Filter Gallery.8BF

Extensions

  FastCore.8BX

  MMXCore.8BX

  MultiProcessor Support.8BX

  ScriptingSupport.8li

  ScriptUIFlexPhotoshop.swf

  ScriptUIFlexServer-app.xml

  ScriptUIFlexServer.swf

File Formats

  Cineon.8BI

  Dicom.8BI

  JPEG2000.8BI

  PBM.8BI

  PCX.8BI

  Pixar.8BI

  Radiance.8BI

  U3D.8BI

  WBMP.8BI

Filters

  Average.8BF

  ChannelPort.8BF

  Clouds.8BF

  Lens Blur.8BF

  Lens Correction.8BF

  LightingEffects.8BF

  Liquify.8BF

  NTSC Colors.8BF

  Solarize.8BF

  Standard MultiPlugin.8BF

  VanishingPoint.8BF

  Variations.8BF

    Lighting Styles

      2 O'clock Spotlight

      Blue Omni

      Circle of Light

      Crossing

      Crossing Down

      Default

      Five Lights Down

      Five Lights Up

      Flashlight

      Flood Light

      Parallel Directional

      RGB Lights

      Soft Direct Lights

      Soft Omni

      Soft Spotlight

      Three Down

      Triple Spotlight

Image Stacks

  statistics.8BA

Import-Export

  Save for Web.8BE

Measurements

  MeasurementCore.8ME

Panels

It might take a bit of time trying each of those for long enough to really "know" that you've found it.

Steve Cavanaugh :: Technical Writer:: Coinstar, Inc.

About a month ago, I bought a Wacom tablet. Up until that point, everything had been going perfectly fine in my 8GB/3Hz dual core laptop Windows Professional 64bit and Photoshop CS5 64bit world (well, except for Machine Wash filters, but that's another story).

So, I thought I was going out of my mind when, the week after installing the tablet, every time I tried to copy and paste something from Illustrator to Photoshop (which I've done tens thousands of times over my professional life), it wouldn't work. The first one would, but after copying and pasting in Photoshop, I could only paste what I had copied in Photoshop, nothing else from an external program would paste in... unless I quit Photoshop and restarted.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/794472/SelToolInst.cfg completely fixed the problem. I've put copies of it in my software updates folder, with the instructions on where to put it for the next time I have to install Photoshop/Wacom on to an otherwise clean system.

Thank you for posting this, I'd probably still be ripping my hair out in frustration without it!

That patch is bogus.

It's already been shown that even the 64 bit Photoshop doesn't read a QWORD from the registry for that value.

Do you know anything about programmatically accessing the registry?

-Noel

The NIK configuation file for the Selective Tool (post 88) worked for me with NIKs Color Efex Pro 3 for several weeks as I mentioned in posts 118 and 157. Then I installed NIK Silver Efex Pro 2, which caused the clipboard paste problem all over again. I contacted NIK, who assured me that SEP2 did work under Win7/64, and sent me another cfg file to copy to the Selective Tool folder. SEP2 worked OK for a few days, then the ciipboard paste problem came back. I uninstalled SEP2, and the clipboard worked OK with NIK CEP3 still installed.

Now the clipboard problem is back again with no changes to the system except for a rash of Win7 updates in the meantime. I'm waiting for a response from NIK who still assure me that SEP2 does work with Win7/64. Maybe I'll only connect one machine to the internet and stop getting Win updates on the other if things ever work right again...

It seems to me nothing gets fixed until there's a threat to the bottom line... Clearly this problem has no effect whatsoever on Win7/64 sales, and probably virtually none on CS5. Well, maybe it's momentarily positive for Adobe -- I use PSE9 which is 32bit to run the NIK software when I need it. Maybe some other folks are doing this too. Of course there's the PIA message that I have PSE installed on more than two computers. I only use two computers for goodness sake -- unfortunately I have had a couple of HD problems lately, and so now I need to call PSE9 support yet again.

Anyway NIK is the place to complain, because they realize the pinch on sales may be actually be felt when word of mouth gets out about this problem -- and once out, it takes a long time to recover when customers figure out how to do things differently...

Message was edited by: gbriney - grammatical errors corrected

I thought it was apparent that I was being facetious about the Win updates, hence the wink smiley -- but hey I wouldn't want to mislead anyone to do something that's not in their best interest.

Since you haven't had any problems, and would like to help, how about installing the free NIK Silver demo on your system, and let us know what happens?

Okay, I've downloaded the trial version of the Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 plug-in on a very clean virtual machine running Windows 7 x64, which I use for testing.

Test 1:  Try running Photoshop CS5.1 prior to installing the Nik plug-in.

• I copied several images both large and small from another application (IrfanView)
• I was able to successfully paste them into a document in Photoshop.

Test 2:  Installed Nik Silver Efex Pro 2

• Noted an extension panel when Photoshop was first started.
• Copied several images, both large and small from IrfanView.
• Was able to paste them into documents in Photoshop.
• Ran the Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 plug-in, got the trial dialog.
• When the Silver Efex Pro 2 dialog came up, the display was corrupted.  Wasn't able to do anything but close the dialog.
• Was able to copy and paste more images into Photoshop.
• Ran the Silver Efex Pro 2 plug-in again, saw a corrupted dialog again.
• Tried hitting Return in the hopes it would take it as OK.  It did and I got a new grayscale layer.
• Was able to copy and paste successfully into Photoshop thereafter.

I don't appear to be seeing an issue with the clipboard here with this system, though Silver Efex Pro 2 itself isn't working properly.

I'm guessing the Silver Efex Pro 2 plug-in just isn't compatible with the OpenGL driver VMware provides, but I'm not about to install this turkey of a plug-in on my main workstation.  It looks as though it gets pretty intimate with Photoshop, by the appearance of the extension panel, and also by the fact that it created a new layer - something a filter plug-in is not legally able to do.

I made a note of the files before and after the install.  These are the ones the Nik installer added:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1\Plug-ins\Nik Software\Selective Tool\Dfine2.config
c:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1\Plug-ins\Nik Software\Selective Tool\SelectivePalette.8li
c:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1\Plug-ins\Nik Software\Silver Efex Pro 2\Silver Efex Pro 2.8bf.lnk
c:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1\Plug-ins\Nik Software\Silver Efex Pro 2\SilverEfexPro2.config

c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Nik Software\Selective Tool\Dfine2.config
c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Nik Software\Selective Tool\SelectivePalette.8li
c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Nik Software\Silver Efex Pro 2\Silver Efex Pro 2.8bf.lnk
c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Nik Software\Silver Efex Pro 2\SilverEfexPro2.config

Anything else in particular you'd like me to test?

-Noel

Noel,

Thanks for doing the quick test and sharing the results -- you're a prince. For what it's worth, the 32-bit NIK applications seem to have many dedicated fans who appreciate having a new layer created labeled with the filter used -- I don't have a dog in that fight being new to SEP2.

I think it would be great if you could leave NIK SEP2 installed for a while, because the problem doesn't always show up immediately. I strongly suspect that the clipboard issue is much more likely to happen when CS5 (and the OS) are stressed by CS5 with many large files open, after being open for many hours, and with many other windows open competing for memory.

I realize the OS contribution may make it arguable about where responsibility lies, but my feeling is that applications getting low on resources should give an explicit warning rather than just becoming erratic and eventually crashing. Graceful decline to allow saving work is always better IMO.

Best regards,

Gary

You're coming into this a little late -- several months in fact, look at the preceding 4 pages or so of comments. The obvious stuff was done long ago.

I already posted in this forum: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3204129#3204129

You're just a troll.

...And I won't feed you more.

I narrowed down the problem on my machine to the Viveza 2 plugin from Nik.

Nik sent me a "SelToolInst.cfg" file, (one for Win, one for Mac)

Instructions were to replace the .cfg file in a certain folder.

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS5\Plug-Ins\Nik Software\Selective Tool

My folder of that name did not have this file, but I put the new one in there anyway.

Seems to have solved the problem for me, so far.

But judging by some of the comments in this thread, it could recur any time.

Sigh.

In Photoshop, go into Edit - Preferences - General.

Do you have [ ] Export Clipboard checked?

-Noel

I have the same problem and I'm totally aggravated. My PS install is totally vanilla and it's 32 bit. All I can do is save the file and then open it in PS, copy it, and then paste it.

Totally aggravating and I don't see any good solutions here.

My clipboard is working fine outside of PS (or at least out of Adobe CS), so I can paste away into every other app.

I can copy/paste from Adobe to Adobe...but not from anything else (Word, Web, screenshots) to PS.

Help??

I tried the registry hack and it worked for a short while but it stopped working almost immediately. It's hard for me to believe this is a Microsoft problem when every other app is respecting my clipboard, but for those made by Adobe.

I don't have NIK or any other third party plugins installed.

Copy/Paste is a critical function. And from what I've seen online, this problem has been floating around since 2009. Sucks that there aren't any reasonable competitors and I'm stuck with broken software or need to keep spinning my wheels to try to make it go.