Access clipboard in Windows batch file

Question

Any idea how to access the Windows clipboard using a batch file?

Answer 1

To set the contents of the clipboard, as Chris Thornton, klaatu, and bunches of others have said, use %windir%\system32\clip.exe.

---

Update 2:

For a quick one-liner, you could do something like this:

powershell -sta "add-type -as System.Windows.Forms; [windows.forms.clipboard]::GetText()" 

Capture and parse with a for /F loop if needed. This will not execute as quickly as the JScript solution below, but it does have the advantage of simplicity.

---

Updated solution:

Thanks Jonathan for pointing to the capabilities of the mysterious htmlfile COM object for retrieving the clipboard. It is possible to invoke a batch + JScript hybrid to retrieve the contents of the clipboard. In fact, it only takes one line of JScript, and a cscript line to trigger it, and is much faster than the PowerShell / .NET solution offered earlier.

@if (@CodeSection == @Batch) @then  @echo off setlocal  set "getclip=cscript /nologo /e:JScript "%~f0""  rem // If you want to process the contents of the clipboard line-by-line, use rem // something like this to preserve blank lines: for /f "delims=" %%I in ('%getclip% ^| findstr /n "^"') do (     setlocal enabledelayedexpansion     set "line=%%I" & set "line=!line:*:=!"     echo(!line!     endlocal )  rem // If all you need is to output the clipboard text to the console without rem // any processing, then remove the "for /f" loop above and uncomment the rem // following line: :: %getclip%  goto :EOF  @end // begin JScript hybrid chimera WSH.Echo(WSH.CreateObject('htmlfile').parentWindow.clipboardData.getData('text')); 

---

Old solution:

It is possible to retrieve clipboard text from the Windows console without any 3rd-party applications by using .NET. If you have powershell installed, you can retrieve the clipboard contents by creating an imaginary textbox and pasting into it. (Source)

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms $tb = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox $tb.Multiline = $true $tb.Paste() $tb.Text 

If you don't have powershell, you can still compile a simple .NET application to dump the clipboard text to the console. Here's a C# example. (Inspiration)

using System; using System.Threading; using System.Windows.Forms; class dummy {     [STAThread]     public static void Main() {         if (Clipboard.ContainsText()) Console.Write(Clipboard.GetText());     } } 

Here's a batch script that combines both methods. If powershell exists within %PATH%, use it. Otherwise, find the C# compiler / linker and build a temporary .NET application. As you can see in the batch script comments, you can capture the clipboard contents using a for /f loop or simply dump them to the console.

:: clipboard.bat :: retrieves contents of clipboard  @echo off setlocal enabledelayedexpansion  :: Does powershell.exe exist within %PATH%? for %%I in (powershell.exe) do if "%%~$PATH:I" neq "" (     set getclip=powershell "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms;$tb=New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox;$tb.Multiline=$true;$tb.Paste();$tb.Text" ) else ( rem :: If not, compose and link C# application to retrieve clipboard text     set getclip=%temp%\getclip.exe     >"%temp%\c.cs" echo using System;using System.Threading;using System.Windows.Forms;class dummy{[STAThread]     >>"%temp%\c.cs" echo public static void Main^(^){if^(Clipboard.ContainsText^(^)^) Console.Write^(Clipboard.GetText^(^)^);}}     for /f "delims=" %%I in ('dir /b /s "%windir%\microsoft.net\*csc.exe"') do (         if not exist "!getclip!" "%%I" /nologo /out:"!getclip!" "%temp%\c.cs" 2>NUL     )     del "%temp%\c.cs"     if not exist "!getclip!" (         echo Error: Please install .NET 2.0 or newer, or install PowerShell.         goto :EOF     ) )  :: If you want to process the contents of the clipboard line-by-line, use :: something like this to preserve blank lines: for /f "delims=" %%I in ('%getclip% ^| findstr /n "^"') do (     set "line=%%I" & set "line=!line:*:=!"     echo(!line! )  :: If all you need is to output the clipboard text to the console without :: any processing, then remove the above "for /f" loop and uncomment the :: following line:  :: %getclip%  :: Clean up the mess del "%temp%\getclip.exe" 2>NUL goto :EOF