The PowerShell Clipboard Cheat Sheet (2026)

PowerShell can read and write the Windows clipboard without any module: two cmdlets, a handful of parameters, and the ancient clip.exe fallback. This is the complete reference, tested against Microsoft's current documentation. Older guides floating around are stale on one point: several claim PowerShell Core lacks these cmdlets. Get-Clipboard and Set-Clipboard exist in PowerShell 7.x. The notes below say where each parameter came from.

The two cmdlets

Set-Clipboard sets the current Windows clipboard entry. Get-Clipboard gets it. That is the whole surface. Everything else is parameters.

Set-Clipboard

Set-Clipboard -Value "This is a test string"

The -Value parameter takes a string array: the content to copy. It is also the pipeline target, so this is the idiom you will use most:

Get-Content C:\Users\user1\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub | Set-Clipboard

That example is straight from Microsoft's docs: pipe a file's contents to the clipboard, then paste the key into GitHub.

Parameters worth knowing:

• -Append adds to the clipboard instead of replacing it, after a newline. Without it, Set-Clipboard clears first.
• -AsHtml renders the content as HTML on the clipboard, so a paste into a rich editor keeps markup.
• -Path copies file paths to the clipboard (wildcards allowed): Set-Clipboard -Path "C:\Staging\" puts the folder's files on the clipboard as a file drop list. Paste into Explorer to copy them.
• -LiteralPath is the same but takes the path exactly as written, no wildcard interpretation. Use it when paths contain brackets or other wildcard characters.
• -AsOSC52 (PowerShell 7.4 and later) fixes the SSH case: over a remote session, Set-Clipboard normally sets the remote machine's clipboard. This parameter uses the OSC52 escape sequence to set your local machine's clipboard instead. Your terminal must support OSC52; Windows Terminal does.

The cmdlet's alias is clip. In a script, warn the user before overwriting their clipboard; silently replacing it is rude.

Get-Clipboard

Set-Clipboard -Value 'hello world'
Get-Clipboard

Multiple lines come back as an array of strings, like Get-Content. Add -Raw to get one multiline string instead.

• -Format selects non-text formats: Text, FileDropList, Image, Audio. Get-Clipboard -Format FileDropList lists copied files as file objects, which you can then move or inspect.
• -TextFormatType selects the text flavor: Text, UnicodeText, Rtf, Html, CommaSeparatedValue. Copy a table from a web page and Get-Clipboard -TextFormatType Html gives you the raw HTML fragment.

The clip.exe fallback

Older than PowerShell and still everywhere: clip.exe reads stdin and puts it on the clipboard.

ipconfig | clip

Now the ipconfig output is on the clipboard, ready to paste. This works in cmd, PowerShell, and batch files with no cmdlet knowledge. It is write-only; there is no unclip. For reading, you need Get-Clipboard.

Copying file paths

Two different jobs, two commands. To copy the list of files (so Explorer pastes the files): Set-Clipboard -Path "C:\Staging\*". To copy a path as text (so a terminal gets the string): build the string and use -Value, or use the dedicated guide How to Copy a File Path to the Clipboard. Mixing these up is the classic mistake; the distinction is Files vs File Contents: What Does Copy Actually Store?.

Terminal and SSH notes

Copying from Windows Terminal can mangle control codes; the cleanup is How to Copy From Windows Terminal Without Garbled Text. Over SSH, remember the 7.4 -AsOSC52 parameter, and note the platform gaps Microsoft documents: on Linux the cmdlets need xclip in the path, on macOS they use pbpaste. These cmdlets are Windows-first citizens.

Pasting HTML with formatting intact

The -AsHtml parameter renders content as HTML on the clipboard, so rich editors receive markup instead of flat text:

$html = "<b>Bold</b> and <i>italic</i>"
Set-Clipboard -Value $html -AsHtml

Paste into Word or Outlook and the formatting survives. Without -AsHtml, the same string pastes as literal tags. This is the scripted version of the copy-format problem covered in How Windows Treats Rich Text vs Plain Text.

Saving a copied image to a file

Get-Clipboard -Format Image returns the image as an object. To save it:

$img = Get-Clipboard -Format Image
$img.Save("C:\Temp\clip.png")

Screenshots copied with Win+Shift+S land on the clipboard as images, and this is the scripted way to file them without pasting into Paint. Pair it with a clipboard manager's image history (How to Keep the Last Ten Screenshots Handy) for the interactive version.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting -Raw: Get-Clipboard returns an array, so string comparison against the whole clipboard fails line by line. Use -Raw when you want one string.
• Piping objects directly: Get-Process | Set-Clipboard writes object type names, not useful text. Pipe through Out-String first.
• Assuming clip reads: clip is write-only. There is no inverse; use Get-Clipboard.
• Overwriting without warning in shared scripts: always confirm before Set-Clipboard in anything another person runs.

Quick reference

Related reading

• How to Copy PowerShell Here-Strings Without Breakage
• How to Copy From Windows Terminal Without Garbled Text
• How to Copy a File Path to the Clipboard
• Files vs File Contents: What Does Copy Actually Store?
• Best Clipboard Habits for Developers in 2026
• The Best AutoHotkey Clipboard Scripts (v2)

Sources

• Microsoft Learn: Set-Clipboard (parameters -Append, -AsHtml, -Path, -LiteralPath, -AsOSC52 added in 7.4): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/set-clipboard?view=powershell-7.5
• Microsoft Learn: Get-Clipboard (-Raw, -Format, -TextFormatType; xclip/pbpaste platform notes): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/get-clipboard?view=powershell-7.5
• MicrosoftDocs PowerShell-Docs on GitHub: Set-Clipboard and Get-Clipboard reference: https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/PowerShell-Docs/blob/main/reference/5.1/Microsoft.PowerShell.Management/Set-Clipboard.md
• SS64: Set-Clipboard reference (alias clip, scripting notes): https://ss64.com/ps/set-clipboard.html

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