On XEmacs under mswindows, Sh-insert is bound to `mswindows-paste-clipboard', which should delete the active selection if there is one. I have (setq zmacs-regions nil) in my .emacs file. I have observed the following problems with `mswindows-paste-clipboard': o In a buffer where mark is not defined, Sh-insert gives the error message "Marker does not point anywhere". M-: (mark-marker) in this case yields #<marker in no buffer 0xa065e34> if zmacs-regions is nil, and nil if zmacs-region is t. o In a buffer where mark is defined, Sh-insert replaces the region with the clipboard. In particular, repeated applications of Sh-insert have no apparent effect, because the region is defined to be the just-inserted text. Here's the code that's responsible from (msw-select.el) mswindows-paste-clipboard: (let ((clip (mswindows-get-clipboard)) (s (mark-marker)) (e (point-marker))) (or clip (error "there is no text on the clipboard")) (if s ; here's the culprit (if mouse-track-rectangle-p (delete-rectangle s e) (delete-region s e))) (push-mark) (if mouse-track-rectangle-p (insert-rectangle clip) (insert clip)))) One possible to solution is to replace `(if s' with `(if (and s zmacs-regions)' or something to do with zmacs-region-active-p. This will change the behavior only when zmacs-regions is set to nil. It allows me to paste even when there's no mark, and to paste the selection multiple times. However, when a region is highlighted with a mouse drag, Sh-Insert inserts the clipboard at point instead of replacing the region, which is broken both with respect to the docstring and with respect to a user's expectations (especially on mswindows). Again, this breaks only when zmacs-regions is nil; when zmacs-regions is t, everything works as expected. So, the attached patch is probably not the best solution; on the other hand, the current behavior (an error from paste if zmacs-regions is nil and no mark) is definitely broken. 1999-04-20 Sam Mikes <smikes(a)alumni.hmc.edu&gt; * msw-select.el: (mswindows-paste-clipboard) Don't replace region unless `zmacs-regions' is t [ATTACHMENT ~/msw-patch.el, text/plain] -- Sam Mikes smikes(a)alumni.hmc.edu