We could not copy the content to the Clipboard, it is in use by another application. You can still paste your content within this workbook but it will not be available in other applications.

It looks like this problem has been ongoing with other users.

I am running into this error message more frequently now when using Microsoft 365 Excel. This happens in Excel only. The frequency of this error message keeps increasing, I literally have to click all over the spreadsheet to correct the problem. I sometimes save and then click the esc key and it MIGHT work. I even release the cache from the Clipboard by using Win+V, to no result. I have tried keeping less application open for multitasking, but that still doesn't help. I am running Excel on Windows 11. Essentially, I try a combination of any of these or all combination before it slowly gets back to normal.

Does this happen with the desktop version? Anyone?... If I have to move on to that instead of Microsoft 365 Office, it would be worth the effort since I use Excel every day and this bug is becoming an annoyance.

Since I created this thread on 18th May we have seen that this problem doesn't care what configuration you are running, or what operating system, or what version of Excel, or whether you use PowerShell, or whatever.

I am running Excel Pro 2016 standalone on a Win 10 PC. I have been running spreadsheet programs from all providers (Borland, Lotus, VisiCalc, IBM, . . .) since the early 70s so I think I have a bit of expertise and experience. Since Windows 3.11 I have never come across such an egregious problem as this.

Does anyone know how to escalate a problem in Microsoft??

Has anyone tried the solution I posted 10th August? If so, does it work?

Simply add these two directories to your system:

C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Desktop

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\Desktop

I already had one of them. The original poster then sugested removing them but I haven't and the problem has gone.

I already had these 2 directories. They basically contain a couple of desktop.ini files and nothing else.

I can hereby confirm that this glitch happens with the desktop version as well ;) The good news is that upgrading to the 2007 version seems to work and sorts this unpleasant issue out.