Windows XP in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

Clipbook Viewer — \windows\system32\clipbrd.exe

Synopsis

View the contents of the Clipboard, manage clipboard data, and share data with other users.

To Open

Command Prompt → clipbrd

Description

The Clipboard is merely a place in memory; it’s where data is stored when it is cut or copied from most Windows applications. It’s not a discrete application and has no interface of its own to speak of. However, the Clipbook Viewer is provided as a “window” into the clipboard, so to speak, as it allows you to view whatever has been placed in the Clipboard without disrupting or interfering with it any way.

Furthermore, you can save data into special .clp files, making retrieval at a later time—without having to open the original application—easy. This effectively affords us multiple clipboards.

When you first start Clipbook Viewer, it contains a single document called “Clipboard,” which displays the current contents of the clipboard at any time. In fact, you can leave open and watch the contents change as you copy and paste items from various programs. For example, if you cut or copy a file in Explorer, you’ll see the full path and filename of the object listed in the Clipboard document window. The same goes for plain text, rich text, images, spreadsheet cells, or most other types of data.

Although Clipbook Viewer won’t be able to display all types of data accurately, it does correctly preserve the format of the data, so you can safely save and retrieve your clipboards without altering the data. ...