How data is stored in windows clipboard

Question

Whenever we copy any multimedia file or any file except text (Not sure about it) in clipboard , does it stores the address of file or data copy because whenever we copy any movie of like 3 GB , C disk size doesn't increases it means clipboard stores the address not the copy .Is it true ???

Answer 1

If you're copying files, you're dealing with file pointers like HDrop, which take almost no space. And almost no time to perform the copy. If you actually had to wait for 3 GB to be copied into a memory buffer, you would be waiting a long time, there would be a lot of I/O, and unless you had a lot of memory, your system would need to utilize pagefile space, thereby causing even more I/O.
You should also realize that unlike a text/HTML/RTF/graphic copy (where the data is actually on the clipboard), the clipboard cannot be used as a safety net. With text, you can copy, then delete the text, and paste it to get it back. Not so with files. If you copy a file, then delete that file, you won't be able to paste it. This may seem obvious, but it's important to understand when you're using any kind of clipboard manager that lets you go back and paste prior clips. You can paste a file pointer from 3 days ago, for example, but the result won't be that file from 3 days ago. It'll be whatever that file pointer references on today's disk.