Odd pasting of things as images

Let’s work through this logically.

What’s almost certainly happening…
Excel itself isn’t broken. When you press Ctrl+C, Excel puts both the cell data (as text) and a picture (image format) onto the clipboard – that’s normal. The problem is that something else (a background app) is interfering with how Excel chooses which format to paste, and it’s defaulting to the image.

The fact that your clipboard history shows both an image and text is the key clue. This means the data is there; we just need to stop the hijacker.

Immediate relief (while we investigate)

Use Paste Special to bypass the glitch:

• Press Ctrl + Alt + V
• Choose “Text” or “Unicode Text”
• Click OK

This forces Excel to paste the raw data and ignore the image format entirely.

The real fix – find the interfering app

The usual suspects are:

• Dropbox (especially its screenshot / clipboard sharing features)
• Screenshot tools (Snag it, Green shot, Light shot, Share X)
• Clipboard managers (Dit to, Clip Clip, 1 Clipboard)
• Remote desktop tools (Team Viewer, Any Desk)

Let’s test them one at a time, starting with the most likely candidate.

Step 1 – Quick test: quit Dropbox completely

• Right‑click the Dropbox icon in your system tray (near the clock)
• Click your profile/gear icon and select “Quit” or “Exit”
• Now open Excel and test Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V on a new blank workbook

If the problem disappears, you’ve found the culprit. To fix it permanently, open Dropbox Preferences → go to the Import or Backups tab and disable any options like “Share screenshots using Dropbox” or “Save screenshots to Dropbox”. Also check the General tab for any “clipboard” or “link sharing” hooks and turn them off.

Step 2 – If Dropbox isn’t the cause, try Excel Safe Mode

This starts Excel without any add‑ins or customisations, which helps us isolate whether the issue is inside Excel or outside.

• Press Win + R, type excel /safe, and press Enter
• Test copy/paste in that safe window

If it works correctly in Safe Mode, the problem is likely an Excel add‑in or a corrupted customisation – but given your symptoms, it’s more likely an external app.

Step 3 – Check your Windows Clipboard History

• Press Win + V to open the clipboard panel
• Click the “Clear all” button (the three dots at the top right) to reset the entire clipboard
• Close and reopen Excel, then test again

This sometimes clears a stuck image payload and forces Windows to rebuild the clipboard fresh.

Step 4 – Cast a wider net (screenshot / remote tools)

Quit any of these apps (one by one) and test after each:

• Snag it, Green shot, Light shot – they often have a “copy to clipboard as image” default action
• Team Viewer, Any Desk – they hook the clipboard for syncing
• Microsoft Power Toys – particularly the “Advanced Paste” or “Keyboard Manager” modules

Step 5 – Only if all else fails: clean boot

I normally leave this as a last resort, but if nothing above helps, a clean boot will tell us for certain if a background service is the culprit.

• Press Win + R, type msconfig, and press Enter
• Go to the Services tab, check “Hide all Microsoft services”, then click “Disable all”
• Go to the Startup tab → “Open Task Manager” – disable all startup items
• Restart your PC and test Excel

If the problem goes away, re‑enable services in batches until you find the specific one responsible.

One final note – I’m deliberately avoiding heavy‑handed steps like registry edits or user profile rebuilds for now. Those are almost never needed for this specific symptom, and we’ve got plenty of easier checks to run first.

My answers are voluntary and without guarantee!

Hope this will help you.