PowerToys 0.81.1 brings fixes for the Advanced Paste AI feature issues

Last week, the PowerToys 0.81 version was released. A significant update introduced a new AI feature, Advanced Paste, which can convert anything you copy into another format.

Soon after the release, many users complained about issues with the newly added feature. One of the users, brainfoolong reported the issue on GitHub, in his comment, he mentioned:

Microsoft PowerToys version 0.81.0

Installation method – PowerToys auto-update

Running as admin – None

Area(s) with issue? – Advanced Paste

Steps to reproduce

I attach a video the shows the behaviour. On Windows, when i have closed slack into systray and then open a chat window, all clipboard data is automatically inserted into slack. Even files i have copied in file explorer.

This does not happen when i just minimize to task bar instead of systray.

I do not press any key. Just open with a click on the systray icon.

The only plugin i have activated is Advanced Paste (Screenshot bellow). If i disable just this plugin or close power toys, the auto insert is gone.

This started immediately after todays update to 0.81.0.

This behaviour can lead to serious data breach if you do not pay attention.

Once he mentioned the issue, many other users shared their experiences and issues with Advanced Paste. Therefore, the developers worked on the issues and released an update fixing them.

Here is the complete changelog for PowerToys version 0.81.1:

• Fixed Advanced Paste was being triggered by some external software when some of the hotkeys were not set. Slack’s tray icon was the most common example in the issues that were opened.
• Added a GPO rule for Advanced Paste to disable AI online models usage and prevent users from entering the API key.
• Improved descriptions on Advanced Paste Settings and OOBE pages to clarify that usage of AI is opt-in and that it can be used without AI.
• Fixed the Advanced Paste settings page UX showing that it could enable/disable clipboard history when that feature is not allowed by GPO.
• Fixed PowerToys Run showing the accent color on the title bar when that option is turned on in Windows Settings

You can get the latest version of PowerToys from GitHub or download it from Microsoft Store. However, if you already have PowerToys, launch it, go to Settings> General, and click Check for updates to install the newest version.

Were you also facing issues with PowerToys’ Advanced Paste function? If so, download the latest update and share your experiences with our readers in the comments section below.