CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.net
Richard Pianka
Richard Pianka

Reputation: 3356

Determine which process is locking the clipboard

I have a peculiar error where some process occasionally appears to be using the clipboard when my application goes to handle copy & paste operations. There are some retry work arounds, and I have an acceptable solution in place, but I would like to locate which process it is if the error occurs again.

Upvotes: 21

Views: 10949

Answers (5)

WackGet
WackGet

Reputation: 2916

The following question on SuperUser has several possible solutions: https://superuser.com/questions/145268/copy-paste-stops-working-on-windows-7

What worked for me was downloading the GetOpenClipboardWindow.zip tool which allowed me to find the program which was locking the clipboard (VirtualBox).

Upvotes: 0

weston
weston

Reputation: 54781

Based on Jeff Roe's answer, but shows how to get the text length, so could be > 500. Also handles case where window is not found.

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr GetOpenClipboardWindow();

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern int GetWindowText(int hwnd, StringBuilder text, int count);

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern int GetWindowTextLength(int hwnd);

private static string GetOpenClipboardWindowText()
{
    var hwnd = GetOpenClipboardWindow();
    if (hwnd == IntPtr.Zero)
    {
        return "Unknown";
    }
    var int32Handle = hwnd.ToInt32();
    var len = GetWindowTextLength(int32Handle);
    var sb = new StringBuilder(len);
    GetWindowText(int32Handle, sb, len);
    return sb.ToString();
}

Upvotes: 5

Jeff Roe
Jeff Roe

Reputation: 3206

Here's a similar solution, but this gives you a string you can show the user:

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr GetOpenClipboardWindow();

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern int GetWindowText(int hwnd, StringBuilder text, int count);

private string getOpenClipboardWindowText()
{
    IntPtr hwnd = GetOpenClipboardWindow();
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(501);
    GetWindowText(hwnd.ToInt32(), sb, 500);
    return sb.ToString();
}

Upvotes: 4

Richard Pianka
Richard Pianka

Reputation: 3356

I've wrapped my solution into an easy-to-use method (and some declarations):

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern IntPtr GetOpenClipboardWindow();

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern int GetWindowThreadProcessId(IntPtr hWnd, out int lpdwProcessId);

private static Process GetProcessLockingClipboard()
{
    int processId;
    GetWindowThreadProcessId(GetOpenClipboardWindow(), out processId);

    return Process.GetProcessById(processId);
}

Enjoy!

Upvotes: 22

Awal
Awal

Reputation: 89

To diagnose something like this I would suggest starting with Process Explorer, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

Upvotes: 0

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