device: 0.575
graphic: 0.476
vnc: 0.330
i386: 0.280
semantic: 0.258
network: 0.252
ppc: 0.248
PID: 0.229
x86: 0.228
virtual: 0.210
user-level: 0.196
risc-v: 0.182
mistranslation: 0.158
socket: 0.148
register: 0.145
architecture: 0.139
arm: 0.134
VMM: 0.126
hypervisor: 0.117
debug: 0.102
kernel: 0.093
TCG: 0.092
permissions: 0.091
performance: 0.091
boot: 0.072
files: 0.069
assembly: 0.058
peripherals: 0.055
KVM: 0.053

No copy/paste with VNC display with Windows guest

There is no copy/paste functionality between a Windows guest and the VNC client.  This is a significant usability problem.

One work-around is to run VNC inside of the guest.  But that appears to have more overhead than qemu's VNC display.

Obviously, qemu's VNC display is just a display device and knows absolutely nothing about the Windows clipboard.  Thus, to interface with the guest's clipboard would require a helper app running in the guest that can hook into qemu.  This would probably be the best solution.

There are probably not a lot of qemu developers interested in trying to write the helper app.  Not exactly an interesting job.  But since it is a significant usability problem, and many users would see this as a major oversight, I suggest leaving this bug open long-term as a hint so that some volunteer later looking for something to do might take pity on everyone and write this helper app.

The qxl display and vdagent running in guest do just this.

Unfortunately, the options needed in qemu command line to make vdagent work with the spice client do not seem to be documented anywhere.

see bug 1452742

Right, this problem should be fixed with Spice, so I'm closing this ticket now.