How to Copy data from PowerShell Command-line to Clipboard Tutorial

I discovered that we can copy the results of a PowerShell command directly to the Windows Clipboard. This tutorial post shows how to use the pipe operator for this purpose.

How to copy data from ipconfig to clipboard PowerShell command

ipconfig /all | clip

PowerShell borrowed the pipe symbol from Unix. The Unix pipe symbol (|) is one of the most elegant innovations in computing history. Introduced by Douglas McIlroy at Bell Labs in 1973, it allows programs to chain together by directly feeding the output of one command into another. The simple vertical bar character was chosen for its visual suggestion of a pipeline carrying data.

The pipe revolutionized the Unix philosophy of creating small, focused tools that could be connected together - exemplified by classic combinations like `cat file.txt | grep "pattern"` or `ps aux | grep firefox`. Rather than building monolithic programs that try to do everything, developers created specialized utilities that worked together through pipes.

You can use the pipe with copy command and many more. The pipe helps you chain and automate your workflows. 

Would you like me to give more specific examples of how pipes are used in practice?

The pipe-sign will pipe the output of the ipconfig command over to the clipboard, from where you can paste it into any text editor you choose, such as Notepad, Notepad++, or VS Code.

How to copy present working directory console output to the clipboard using Windows PowerShell

You can use this technique in combination with various commands, including the PWD(Present Working Directory) command i.e.

pwd | clip

If you want to copy some random text over to the clipboard, it is also possible.

How to copy random text to clipboard using PowerShell

echo "Copy this" | clip

How to clear Windows Clipboard from PowerShell command

If you want to clear the clipboard, you can pass an empty string through the echo using the following syntax:

echo "" | clip

Another PowerShell command to clear the clip is also given below: 

echo $null | clip

You may also use the PowerShell method Get-Clipboard and Set-Clipboard in some scenarios, although I need to figure out the specific scenarios.

Sometimes, you may use the stream redirection operation for the same purpose. 

I hope you'll find this tech tip blog post useful. Feel free to share if you, too, know anything cool.

And just an "oh, by the way," I also learned about the Get-Content command today, which can be used to print the contents of a text file to the console. It has got some other sophisticated uses too. But the simplest one I've found so far is a replacement of the Linux cat command(also available in PowerShell). 

How to copy the contents of a file without opening it on Windows using PowerShell

Suppose you're on a Windows machine and want to copy the contents of a text file without opening it. Is it possible? Let me show you how to copy the contents of a file to the Windows clipboard using PowerShell.

First of all, you can use the following command to read the contents of a file:
cat

The cat command comes from Linux, widely used in the Linux world to print the contents of a file.

The above image shows how you can print the contents of a file on the screen using PowerShell.

Quick Tip:

If the folder is opened in Windows File Explorer, click on the path textbox and enter the word.  

PowerShell to launch PowerShell in the same folder.

You can easily pipe the results of the cat command over to the clip object representing Windows Clipboard. An example is shown below:

cat .\Login.java | clip

All in all, I showed you the following three commands in this short blog post: 

ipconfig /all | clip

pwd | clip

echo "" | clip

cat <file-name> | clip

The difference between Windows Pipe and Unix Pipe

Although the Windows pipe and the Unix pipe look similar, they are very different under the hood. Unlike Unix pipes that simply pass text streams, PowerShell pipes pass entire objects between commands, which makes them more powerful for certain tasks. For example, you can access properties of objects directly in the pipeline, like $_.Length or $_.Status.

More practical PowerShell commands using pipe are listed below FYI. 

# Get all running processes and sort them by memory usage

Get-Process | Sort-Object -Property WS -Descending

# Find specific services and display as a table

Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Running"} | Format-Table -AutoSize

# List files, filter by size, export to CSV

Get-ChildItem | Where-Object {$_.Length -gt 100MB} | Export-Csv -Path "large-files.csv"

# Get stopped services and attempt to start them

Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Stopped"} | Start-Service

# Find large log files older than 30 days

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Logs" -Filter *.log | 

    Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-30)} |

    Where-Object {$_.Length -gt 1MB}