One keyboard shortcut that everyone knows and uses many times daily is Ctrl-C to copy text or objects to the clipboard to paste it, Ctrl-V, elsewhere. But did you know that you can also use Ctrl-C to copy windows error messages?

Here’s an example. Suppose you get an error message working in Internet Explorer:

Instead of writing the error message down to research it or email it to someone, you can press Ctrl-C to copy the error’s text into the Windows Clipboard. You can then start NotePad or your email client and paste the error. The following is a representation of what is pasted:

You can then email this message to your support staff or highlight some text and paste it into Google to research the error yourself.

You can also use the Copy command in the Windows Console screen (DOS Prompt Window). To use it, right-click the console screen and select Mark.

Then highlight the text you want to copy and press Enter. The highlighted text is copied to the Clipboard and is ready to be pasted and emailed.

One more notable use of Ctrl-C is copying the Windows Calculator results to paste into a document you’re working on.