Clipboard -> ERROR: Access is denied

[eBob.com]

I am using a new PC with Vista Ultimate x64. A few moments ago copy and
paste stopped working. The copy part does not indicate any sort of error,
but when I do the paste part I get nothing. I noticed this first with
Notepad but since then have also noticed that I cannot paste into WordPad or
the Firefox address window. After opening the notepad session I did at
least one paste but then a subsequent paste did not work. I made no system
changes of any sort between the last paste that worked and the first one
that didn't work!

In researching this I found no solution but did learn about a Vista utility
named "clip". For some reason I then opened up a command window and tried
"dir | clip" and was surprised to get "ERROR: Access is denied". I couldn't
imagine getting such an error when trying to put something into the
clipboard but I tried the dir by itself and that worked fine. I then tried
"clip /?" and that worked fine too. So then I tried to stuff a small file
into the clipboard by issuing "clip < anything.txt" and once again got the
Access denied message.

So I am now wondering if Vista is trying to tell me that I do not have the
authority to put something into the clipboard? I find that hard to imagine
but I don't know how else to explain the error message I get when actually
trying to put something into the clipboard using the clip utility. And if I
am having a clipboard authority issue that might well explain the problem I
am seeing with Notepad and WordPad.

I don't know if I have one problem here or two, but any help with it/them
would be most appreciated.

Thanks, Bob

 

[eBob.com]

I have this rather nasty program which always intercepts cuts and copies to
the clipboard. I don't run it very often so I keep forgetting what it does.

Sorry, Bob