A Windows 11 or Windows 10 user can choose to copy images and text from one PC to another with a cloud-based clipboard. One can also pin the items and sync his clipboard history to the cloud. However, some prefer to keep it disabled for safety reasons. So, if you are interested in disabling Windows Clipboard ‘Sync across devices’ feature, read this post.

Disable Clipboard Sync across Windows 11/10 devices

Although, you can disable the feature via a toggle in Settings, if you wish to gray out this setting, you will have to use the REGEDIT or GPEDIT methods.By doing so, you can ensure, any other user of the same computer fails to enable this feature and accidentally sync or exchange potentially sensitive data (passwords) with Microsoft’s servers.

There are 3 ways via which you can disable or enable Windows 10 Clipboard ‘Sync across devices’ :

Va Settings
Via the Registry Editor
Via the Group Policy Editor

1] Turn on or off Clipboard sync via Settings

You will be required to be signed in with Your Microsoft Account.

In Windows 10, open Settings > System > Clipboard.

Here you can toggle the switch to enable or disable Clipboard sync.

In Windows 11, open Settings > System > Clipboard.

Toggle the switch to On or off against Clipboard history.

If you have set it to On and if you are signed into your Microsoft account then you will be able to sync your clipboard across devives.

2] Disable Windows Clipboard ‘Sync across devices’ via the Registry Editor

Press Win+R in combination to bring up the ‘Run’ dialog box.

Type ‘regedit’ in the empty field of the box and press ‘Enter’.

When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following path address –

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System

Here, right-click on the ‘System’ key (folder) in the left pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name the value ‘AllowCrossDeviceClipboard’. Double-click it and set the value to ‘0.’

Close the Registry Editor. There’s no need to restart your computer.

If at any point, you feel to re-enable the feature, simply change the assigned value for ‘AllowCrossDeviceClipboard’ to ‘1’ or delete it completely.

2] Disable Windows Clipboard ‘Sync across devices’ via the Group Policy Editor

Press Win+R in combination to bring up the ‘Run’ dialog box.

Type ‘gpedit.msc’ in the empty field of the box and press ‘Enter’.

Navigate in the following sequence –

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > OS Policies.

Now, switch to the right-pane and under the Setting section, locate the ‘Allow Clipboard Synchronization across Devices’ option.

When found, double-click it and configure the ‘Allow Synchronization across Devices’ option to ‘Disabled’.

Click the ‘OK’ button to save your changes.

That’s it! You have now disabled Clipboard Sync across Windows 11/10 devices completely.