Reading from Clipboard for C/C++ fails but java succeeds

Question

I have a strange problem trying to read from the clipboard for C or C++ programs I write using Visual Studio (I've tried 2010, 2012 and 2013) on Windows 8.1 64 bit. The following code works fine on Window 7 64 bit but fails to read from the keyboard after a web browser (any one) has been launched on Windows 8.1:

char * ReadClipboard()
{
    char * Result = 0;
    if (OpenClipboard(NULL))
    {
        HANDLE ClipboardHandle = GetClipboardData(CF_TEXT);
        if (ClipboardHandle)
        {
            char * Text = (char *)GlobalLock(ClipboardHandle);
            if (Text)
            {
                size_t StringLength = strlen(Text);
                Result = (char *)malloc(StringLength + 1);
                strcpy(Result, Text);
            }
            GlobalUnlock(ClipboardHandle);
        }
        CloseClipboard();
    }
    return Result;
}

The call to GetClipboardData returns null even when there is data on the clipboard. When the following java code is executed under the same conditions, it reads the clipboard fine:

String textData = (String) Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().
                                   getSystemClipboard()
                                  .getData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);

I have also tried reading the clipboard from C/C++ using the Ole clipboard with the same outcome - failure. Is there something I am doing wrong in the above code? Can others reproduce this problem?