Copy command-line output directly to the Clipboard using Clip.exe
- Ramesh Srinivasan
- Windows
Summary
This article explains how to redirect the output of command line tools to the Windows Vista Clipboard.
Redirecting the console output to Clipboard
Windows Vista ships with Clip.exe, a console tool that can be used to redirect the console output directly to the Windows Clipboard. To get more information about this utility, open a Command Prompt window and type:
Clip /?
Press {ENTER}
CLIP
Description:
Redirects output of command line tools to the Windows clipboard.
This text output can then be pasted into other programs.
Parameter List:
/? Displays this help message.
Examples:
DIR | CLIP Places a copy of the current directory listing into the Windows clipboard.
CLIP < README.TXT Places a copy of the text from readme.txt on to the Windows clipboard.
For example, to generate the System information and copy the output directly to the clipboard, type the following:
Systeminfo | Clip
The pipe (|) operator reads the output from one command and writes it to the input of another command.
Open a Notepad window and press CTRL+V to paste the System information data from the clipboard.

