gVim control characters on Windows

Solution 1:

from :help CTRL-V-alternative:

                                                *CTRL-V-alternative* *CTRL-Q*
Since CTRL-V is used to paste, you can't use it to start a blockwise Visual
selection.  You can use CTRL-Q instead.  You can also use CTRL-Q in Insert
mode and Command-line mode to get the old meaning of CTRL-V.  But CTRL-Q
doesn't work for terminals when it's used for control flow.

Solution 2:

Another Way, specific for ^M, would be to use :%s/\r//g since ^M is a carriage return.

Solution 3:

To use your familiar MS Windows hotkeys for copy, paste etc. use the mswin.vim file as your configuration. Copy it from your install path to where your $HOME directory is, renamed to _vimrc. Type :echo $HOME to figure out where that is. Usually something like C:\Users\'username'. Restart gVim and your regular Windows Ctrl-V, Ctrl-C type of hotkeys should work.

See Where should the .vimrc file be located on Windows 7? for a little more guidance.