Use clipboard from VBScript

I am looking for a method to place some text onto the clipboard with VBScript. The VBScript in question will be deployed as part of our login script. I would like to avoid using anything that isn't available on a clean Windows XP system.

Edit: In answer to the questions about what this is for.

We wanted to encourage users inside our organization to use the file server to transfer documents instead of constantly sending attachments by email. One of the biggest barriers to this is that it isn't always obvious to people what the correct network path is to a file/folder. We developed a quick script, and attached it to the Windows context menu so that a user can right click on any file/folder, and get a URL that they can email to someone within our organization.

I want the URL displayed in the dialog box to also be placed onto the clipboard.

GetNetworkPath

Solution 1:

Another solution I have found that isn't perfect in my opinion, but doesn't have the annoying security warnings is to use clip.exe from a w2k3 server.

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "cmd.exe /c echo hello world | clip", 0, TRUE

Example with a multiline string as per question below : Link1

Dim string
String = "text here" &chr(13)& "more text here"
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "cmd.exe /c echo " & String & " | clip", 0, TRUE

Solution 2:

Using Microsoft's clip.exe is the closest to having a clean Windows XP system solution. However you don't have to call CMD.EXE to host it in order to use it. You can call it directly and write to its input stream in your script code. Once you close the input stream clip.exe will write the contents straight to the clipboard.

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set oExec = WshShell.Exec("clip")
Set oIn = oExec.stdIn
oIn.WriteLine "Something One"
oIn.WriteLine "Something Two"
oIn.WriteLine "Something Three"
oIn.Close

If you need to wait for clip to be finished before your script can continue processing then add

' loop until we're finished working.
Do While oExec.Status = 0
    WScript.Sleep 100
Loop

And don't forget to release your objects

Set oIn = Nothing
Set oExec = Nothing

Solution 3:

The closest solution I have found so far is a method to use IE to get and set stuff on the clipboard. The problem with this solution is the user gets security warnings. I am tempted to move 'about:blank' to the local computer security zone so I don't get the warnings, but I am not sure what the security implications of that would be.

Set objIE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
objIE.Navigate("about:blank")
objIE.document.parentwindow.clipboardData.SetData "text", "Hello This Is A Test"
objIE.Quit

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/dec04/hey1215.mspx

Solution 4:

To avoid the security warnings associated with Internet Explorer and clipboard access, I would recommend you use the Word application object and its methods to put your data onto the clipboard. Of course you can only use this on a machine that has MS Word installed, but these days that's most of them. (*In spite of the fact that you asked for stuff on a 'clean' system :) *)

' Set what you want to put in the clipboard '
strMessage = "Imagine that, it works!"

' Declare an object for the word application '
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")

' Using the object '
With objWord
   .Visible = False         ' Don't show word '
   .Documents.Add           ' Create a document '
   .Selection.TypeText strMessage   ' Put text into it '
   .Selection.WholeStory        ' Select everything in the doc '
   .Selection.Copy          ' Copy contents to clipboard '
   .Quit False          ' Close Word, don't save ' 
End With

You can find detail on the MS Word application object and its methods here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa221371(office.11).aspx