PureText

This gets my vote for Windows utility of the freaking year:

Have you ever copied some text from a web page, a word document, help, etc., and wanted to paste it as simple text into another application without getting all the formatting from the original source? PureText makes this simple. Just copy/cut whatever you want to the clipboard, click on the PureText tray icon, and then paste to any application. Better yet, you can configure a Hot-Key to convert and paste the text for you. The pasted text will be pure and free from all formatting.

Steve Miller: I love you, man. You've just taken a three-step mouse-intensive process ("Copy, Paste Special, Paste as Unformatted Text") in Microsoft Word and turned it into a single keystroke. This will save my time and, more importantly, what remains of my sanity.

PureText (free!)

Hat tip: Lifehacker