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I have this strange issue of only the Ctrl+X shortcut for cut not working. Following are some details:

  1. It happens on both my desktop and laptop computers running Windows 10 with almost identical software installed. All the other shortcuts are working.

  2. I can confirm that the keyboard(s) are working fine.

  3. The Ctrl+X shortcut still works in Windows File Explorer.

  4. The shortcut stops working when I open any application (Word, Excel, Visual Studio, Photoshop, etc.)

  5. If I reboot the system and open just a web browser, I'm able to use the shortcut in the address bar. If I open any application, the shortcut stops working in the address bar of the web browser.

I did my research and found nothing like this.  What could the problem be?  More importantly, what is the solution?

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    Sure, Word, Excel and Visual Studio being MS products used to hijack the clipboard. Since Ctrl-X is a cut function this is right in line with what Office Clipboard would directly be involved with. Look on the notification area of the taskbar and see if Office Clipboard isn't active. If it is, right click and choose to configure the options so that it will not intercept native Windows functionality.
    – user31124
    Jun 14 '17 at 3:48
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    @user31124 I looked over the notification area, there's no Office Clipboard running, but I think the point some application or service is hijacking the global shortcut you made is highly possible. Is there a way to track down all the shortcuts that any application is using?
    – Spike Liu
    Jun 14 '17 at 14:48
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    Office clipboard can present itself only when an MS Office program calls for it, so the problem you noticed of things seeming to be fine at first bootup, but then after a certain program is run it is then when the problem manifests. By bringing up Task Manager, if you're familiar with what tasks normally run you could track it down that way. As far as a program that displays what hooks into the keyboard abstraction layer and reports what global keyboard shortcuts are registered on your computer... probably not but that's a great idea, you should write it! :)
    – user31124
    Jun 14 '17 at 18:07
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Check for possible clipboard-related apps in the taskbar (show hidden icons).

In my case Ctrl-X stopped working in Powershell ISE, though it was working in other editors. Turned out it was Beyond Compare clipboard compare running. After stopping it, Ctrl-X started to work again.

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  • Thanks. In my case it was the Notepad++ MultiClipboard plugin that interfered with the Ctrl-X in Powershell ISE. The text was copied to the clipboard but not removed from the editor. Why only Powershell ISE was affected is still a mystery. Plugin removed.
    – Petru Zaharia
    Oct 3 '20 at 7:15

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