Copy and paste in Windows PowerShell

How do I effectively copy and paste input and output in the Windows PowerShell?


  • To select text in PowerShell with the mouse, just select it as usual.
  • To copy the selected text to the clipboard you have to either hit Enter, or right-click.
  • To paste into the PowerShell window, right click.

keyboard

  • Paste: alt+[space], e, p


Note: In current versions of Windows 10, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V work as expected.


(Elaborating on the answer of Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 and Val)

Mouse

Select/Mark: Press left mouse button, drag, release.

Copy: Right-click.

Paste: With content in the clipboard, right-click.

Keyboard

Activate Mark: Alt + Space > e > k.

Select a Block: Navigate (arrow keys, Page-down, Page-up, End, Pos1) to the upper left corner of the block, press and hold Shift, navigate to the lower right corner, release Shift.

Copy: With a block selected, either hit Enter or Alt + Space > e > y.

Paste: With content in the clipboard, Alt + Space > e > p.


Depends on which PowerShell you are using. With the newer PowerGUI Script Editor or with the PowerShell ISE (integrated scripting environment) cut/paste seems to work better:

  • To cut drag the mouse across text to select, then ^C or right click to copy.
  • To paste use ^V

With the older PowerShell:

  • To cut drag the mouse across text to select, then enter to copy.
  • You can sometimes hit ^C to copy but it does not seem to ALWAYS work.
  • You can also drag to select then right click in the top window pane bar and select Edit | copy.
  • To paste right click.

Good links for people learning PowerShell::

  • The best PowerShell tutorial I've found so far is here. It goes into quite a bit of description of the command line. Sadly some of the cool stuff in the original PowerShell appears to be broken in ISE, like ctrl-home for example, to delete to start of line.

  • Some differences between these two PowerShells is here.


As of Windows 10, Ctrl + C works for copying the text & Ctrl + V works for paste. You can also select the data using Shift + Arrow(Left/Right).

The standard console can be used in Windows 10 — the PowerShell ISE is still available but not required for copy/paste support.


As of PowerShell Core 6, shortcut to copy and paste is Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V and is toggleable in the settings:

PowerShell 6 settings