How to copy text from PowerShell

Question

Sometimes I want to copy a command from Powershell to paste in a document, or I want to copy the output? How can I select and copy text in Powershell?

At least I know a way how to paste a text (or a command) into Powershell: you just right-click on Powershell.

You may want to move non-SharePoint related answers to the more generic Stack Overflow site. I do appreciate you are probably using PowerShell in combination with SharePoint, but this questions doesn't belong here. — Jeroen Ritmeijer, Jun 22 '11 at 08:57

score 62 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 22 '11 at 08:30

62

Just select the text in the console window and press enter or the right mouse button. That selected text ends up in your clipboard.

Note that this will only work if QuickEdit mode is enabled for the console window. If it is not, then either enable it in the console window properties (System menu → Properties → Options) or enter Mark mode via System menu → Edit → Mark (Alt+Space, E, K on an English Windows).

answered Jun 22 '11 at 08:30

Wictor Wilen MCA MCM MVP

736

Using the shift key to highlight the text (text turns white) didn't work for me. I had to use the mouse to highlight the text (text turns orange) – reggaeguitar Apr 16 '19 at 16:42
How do I select all text in the window? – Aaron Franke Nov 23 '19 at 00:59

score 31 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 22 '11 at 10:14

31

Or send the output of your command directly to clipboard using clip.exe For example,

Get-ChildItem C:\Test -recurse | Clip

answered Jun 22 '11 at 10:14

ravikanth

411
3
3

1

a pipe with clip i a good alternative, too! Thank you! – Jun 22 '11 at 11:30
7

This will not work with Unicode, though. In that case you can use Set-Clipboard from PSCX. – Joey Jun 23 '11 at 08:00
7

There IS a way to have clip.exe handle Unicode correctly: set PS's $OutputEncoding variable to BOM-less UTF-16 first, as follows: $OutputEncoding = New-Object System.Text.UnicodeEncoding($false, $false) – mklement0 Mar 22 '13 at 18:57
This last trick is what I looked for coming here ! Thanks : ) – sodawillow May 18 '15 at 18:12
And if you want to paste it, either Ctrl v or get-clipboard – Timo Nov 16 '20 at 11:58
@joey, I use powershell 5 with default config and kann use both cmdlets. – Timo Nov 16 '20 at 11:59
2

@Timo: Set-Clipboard is long-since included in PowerShell. Haven't installed PSCX in ages, but it was once handy, back in the PowerShell 2/3 days – Joey Nov 17 '20 at 21:12

score 11 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 13 '13 at 02:25

11

Go to the menubar, top left, Edit, Select All, Copy, paste in notepad

edited Aug 13 '13 at 02:25

Canadian Luke

24,339

answered Aug 13 '13 at 00:40

zoom

111

This worked for me. Thank you. – Promise Preston Aug 24 '20 at 16:01

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered May 27 '18 at 12:16

2

Set-Clipboard is standard cmdlet as of Powershell v5.0. In some cases you should convert objects to text with Out-String before piping result to the clipboard:

Get-ChildItem C:\Windows -recurse -depth 1 | Out-String -stream | Set-Clipboard

answered May 27 '18 at 12:16

maoizm

1,073

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

2

Have a look at Send Text in Clipboard to Application like Notepad (C# or Powershell). You will find some more tips. However, answer by @Wictor is probably the easiest solution.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

Community

1

answered Jun 22 '11 at 11:09

stej

241

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 22 '11 at 14:11

1

I've build my own out-clipboard funciton for this.

Function Out-Clipboard{
    param($Value,[switch]$PassThru) 
    begin {
            [void][reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Windows.Forms")
        $tb = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
        $tb.Multiline = $true
        $pipeObjects = @()
    }
    process {
      $pipeObjects+=$_
    }
    end {
        if([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($Value)){
            $text=$null
            $pipeObjects | out-string -stream | %{$text = $text + $(if($text -ne $null){"`r`n"}) + $_}
            $tb.text = $text
        } 
        else {
            $tb.text = $value
        }
        $tb.SelectAll()
        $tb.Copy()
        if($PassThru){
            $pipeObjects
        }
        $tb.Dispose()
    }
}

Sample command line:

Get-Process | Out-Clipboard

Hope it's what you're looking for.

answered Jun 22 '11 at 14:11

Your code doesn't work on my box: New-Object : Cannot find type [System.Windows.Forms.TextBox]: make sure the assembly containing this type is loaded. At line:5 char:25
- $tb = New-Object <<<< System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
  
  CategoryInfo : InvalidType: (:) [New-Object], PSArgumentException
  
  FullyQualifiedErrorId : TypeNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewObjectCommand
– Jun 23 '11 at 20:55
1

If you check out http://pscx.codeplex.com/ , one of the functions provided by the community extensions is out-clipboard – Jun 23 '11 at 20:56
1

It is very impressive, @CosmosKey! Thanks for mentioning pscx.codeplex.com, @Winfred! – Anatoly Mironov Jun 26 '11 at 13:03

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 18 '18 at 11:45

If you want to copy the last command you typed to the clipboard, the following command is useful (especially for commands that span multiple lines):

(Get-History -Count 1).CommandLine | Set-Clipboard

If you want to repeat the last command, and copy its output to the clipboard, use:

Invoke-History | Set-Clipboard

Caveat: you should only do this for inexpensive and idempotent commands without any side-effects.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 08 '23 at 21:44

Old question, but this may help someone. For Windows 10, the Terminal application offers an auto-copy option in Settings > Interaction > Automatically copy selection to clipboard.

To paste inside Powershell, you can use Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert, no need to use the mouse.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 24 '24 at 23:10

0

Did Windows 11 really remove the menu bar from Powershell?

Anyway, to select all, use Ctrl+Shift+A, and to copy and paste are both Right Clicks.

answered Jan 24 '24 at 23:10

Efreeto

140

How to copy text from PowerShell

9 Answers9