Access clipboard in Windows batch file

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

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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.

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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'));

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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