Windows XP and problem copying text to Word

I have Win XP Home. Previous versions of Windows allowed me to copy "something" like a phrase from an internet site and paste the copied words into a Word or Excel document.

Win XP home will not let me do this easily. The application that I will paste to must be open first before XP will copy the text. That is, if I want to copy the phrase "COPY ME" from a web site to Word, I need to have Word open first, then I copy the phrase and paste it to Word.

Help. How can I get back to the way Win 95 and 98 worked allowing me to copy something, open an application and then paste the phrase?

thanks

 

I (a) don't have this problem (b) found a few comments where this had been experienced (NB - but no solutions).

There was a suggestion to the effect that the act of opening the Office app was clearing the clipboard. I suggest you copy something, then run the clipboard (in windows\system32 probably), then run e.g. Word to see what happens. Might help to rule this out.

Have you XP ServicePack1'ed?

Rgds,
Andy

 

Ok, thanks. I'll try that.

this happens on 2 Win XP computers, both with SP1 installed.