Weird IE Paste Bug

[dencorso]

I've seen this issue with IE6 in Win 98SE and with IE7 in Win XP SP3. After an intensive seach of the internet, the only report of an analogous issue I was able to find is reported in a brief thread over at techtalkz, where it remains unsolved and seems to have been forgotten already: Curious behavior. IE 7, Vista Business, from which I quote the first post below:

Curious behavior. IE 7, Vista Business. I have a text document open in Notepad.

I copy a url from the text document. Then I open IE and try to paste it into the url address bar, but nothing gets pasted into the address bar.

The only thing that happens is the currently displayed url (the one before the paste attempt) simple disappears.

It's like I pasted a blank url.

Any thoughts appreciated.

To this description, which is very apt, the only info I can add is the following:

If, after pasting to IE address bar results in it getting blanked, I return ot notepad (or open another notepad instance) and paste (either with the mouse or with <Shift>-<Ins>), the text gets pasted to notepad all right.

I then paste it once again, highlight it and copy it again. I, then return to IE and try to paste it to the address bar. Nothing happens. After I repeat this procedure twice or three times, eventually the text gets pasted normally, and

the unusual behaviour disappears, copy and paste working normally until shutdown. But after reboot the strange behaviour reappears.

I've known this bug for about two years already. I thought it'd eventually be solved silently by one of the numerous IE updates MS continuously releases. But, by now, it sure seems to me to be here to stay...

[cluberti]

Seems like perhaps the thread hosting the address bar is hung. Seems odd that it'd happen in 7, but I guess it's possible.

[dencorso]

Is there any way to debug it you can think of? I'm certainly willing to pursue it, but I don't know how.

What I know is:

1) It doesn't happen most of the time.

2) It doesn't happen twice between any given boot and shutdown (i.e. after the system recovers it doesn't repeat).

3) In Win 98SE with IE6SP1 it can happen very often, almost on every boot, if shdocvw.dll is higher than 6.0.2800.1933 (but that's a scenario unsupported by MS). I don't have any Win 2k rig where I could test it in a supported scenario.

4) It also happens with either IE6 or IE7, in Win XP SP3.

5) When it happens, its usually early after the boot.

[DigeratiPrime]

My guess, do a stack trace with Process Explorer or Process Monitor when pasting, look for the Shdocvw.dll thread; might see errors or high cpu usage. Also could dump the iexplore process when this happens and debug it.

Shdocvw.dll in turn hosts the Mshtml.dll component, as well as any other Active Document component (such as a Microsoft Office application) that can be loaded in place in the browser when the user navigates to a specific document type. Shdocvw.dll supplies the functionality associated with navigation, in-place linking, favorites and history management, and PICS support. This DLL also exposes interfaces to its host to allow it to be hosted separately as an ActiveX control. The Shdocvw.dll component is more frequently referred to as the WebBrowser Control. In-place linking refers to the ability to click a link in the HTML of the loaded document and to load a new HTML document in the same instance of the WebBrowser Control. If only Mshtml.dll is being hosted, a click on the link results in a new instance of the browser.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa741313(VS.85).aspx

[dencorso]

Up to now, all my efforts at debugging this issue led nowhere. The bug remains there. From time to time it pops up again. In any case, I just wonder whether just a handful of people worldwide has noticed this bug, or if it requires very special machine conditions (an perhaps old hardware) to rear its head. Since the workaround also works reliably, I'm living with it, but I still refrain from fully abandoning the interest in debugging it. So, in case any of you ever saw it happen, please do post a report. Maybe that will help. Thanks!

[bauxite]

Hi dencorso, here are the details about the bug as i encouter it:

im using XP Pro sp3 with Ie7 i think it used to happen on xp home sp2 as well.

Basically, after copying any text, usually URLs from IE to IE and then pasting into the search box (mostly) nothing would appear, and sometimes after re-pasting nothing happens either, or strangely the previous searched text appears again.

i've never payed much attention to it, like other minor bugs in software that can be ignored. the only "fix" i have found is to "select" whatever is in the addresss bar/search box and delete it then paste again eventually it works.

Edited February 9, 2010 by bauxite

[MrJinje]

Sounds like you grabbed a multi line snippet and the URL was on the second or lower lines.

See how in the pic I grabbed the invisible first row, you have to be mindful not to grab more than one line, that bug/feature of windows really used to bother me, but since I moved to Windows 7 and Firefox, it does not occur.

[bauxite]

Sounds like you grabbed a multi line snippet and the URL was on the second or lower lines.

See how in the pic I grabbed the invisible first row, you have to be mindful not to grab more than one line, that bug/feature of windows really used to bother me, but since I moved to Windows 7 and Firefox, it does not occur.

That does appear to be a cause, although im not quite sure this is the actual "bug" since re-pasting a multi-line snippet never gives you the proper text, however im quite certain that the original text/url can be re-pasted properly after a few tries (without re-copying?)

additonal info:

after performing some tests i have found that straight after pasting the data into the search box, the text becomes "larger" and bold, sort of like a "flash" before it dissapears, re-pasting then works as normal.

Edited February 9, 2010 by bauxite

[dencorso]

after performing some tests i have found that straight after pasting the data into the search box, the text becomes "larger" and bold, sort of like a "flash" before it dissapears, re-pasting then works as normal.

No, it's not related to copying a multi-line source and then pasting it. I see it happen in my system too, and I'm 100% sure it happened to me in situations where I had just one line to copy from, for instance, something from the address bar copied onto the search bar.

And I'm sure the bug reported by bauxite is related to the one I described in my 1st post, or is the same bug, but the "enlarging" only occurs when pasting to the seach bar. When text from elsewhere is pasted onto the address bar, the contents of it just disappear, and the "enlarging" is not observable. I've also seen this kind of "refusal to paste" occur when trying to past to the search box of regedit and also to the search bar of "Registry Search & Replace" v. 2.11, a shareware of which I'm a registered user.

[cluberti]

I've actually seen the "odd text in the seaarchbar" paste issue as well in the past, and it was only on XP. After upgrading to Vista back in 2006, the problem went away (still IE7), and I've never had it happen with Win7 either. However, I can confirm I've had it happen in a virtual XP machine, so I don't think it's driver-related in any way either.

[bauxite]

hmm i guess if it happens in 98 and XP that narrows it down somewhat, if it can be ruled out from vista and 7.

so whats the difference between IE7 in xp and vista/7? and it also occurs in IE6? hmm strange.

dont think its possible to use IE6 in vista/7 right? or dont think anybody does.

Edited February 10, 2010 by bauxite

[cluberti]

The clipboard and OLE/COM are pretty different underneath between XP and Vista or Win7, and given it affects multiple IE versions across multiple OSes (right up until the underlying OS design was changed), and that it repros on generic VM hardware, I don't actually think it's specifically an IE bug, I think it's actually a clipboard / OLE bug that IE is invoking due to whatever happens between copy/paste in IE. And no, you cannot run IE6 on Vista or Win7 (at least in a supported way) without a Virtual Machine.

[bauxite]

I wonder if there is some software that can act as a clipboard replacement, like teracopy can replace explorer for copying files?

and maybe that may prevent this issue, or atleast give more information about it.

Edited February 11, 2010 by bauxite

[dencorso]

hmm i guess if it happens in 98 and XP that narrows it down somewhat, if it can be ruled out from vista and 7.

But Vista cannot be ruled out! While cluberti never saw it happen in Vista, the original precedent I cited, quoting from another forum, is from a IE7 on Vista Business user. Scanty as the evidence is, we haven't up to now, any evidence for its occurrence on Win 7, but it clearly is found, if rarely, from Vista down to 98SE.

[cluberti]

I'd have to see proof (not a one-off "it happened on Vista!" post by some random user), because it's easily, readily repro'ed on XP (again, even in a VM) by myself, at least 2 - 3 times a day of normal use. It never happens under Vista or Win7 during the same usage, so while it's *possible*, it's just not *probable*. It's possible I might win the lottery too, but the probability is likely just as low .