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Overview

Advanced Paste is a powerful clipboard enhancement utility that extends Windows’ standard paste functionality with intelligent transformations, format conversions, and AI-powered text processing. It provides quick access to multiple paste formats and custom clipboard operations.
Advanced Paste can be controlled via GPO (Group Policy Object) settings in enterprise environments.

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Activation

Advanced Paste can be activated in multiple ways:
1

Using Keyboard Shortcut

Press the configured hotkey (default: Win+Shift+V) to open the Advanced Paste window
2

From PowerToys Settings

Enable Advanced Paste in the PowerToys Settings UI under the Advanced Paste section
3

Programmatic Launch

Use the ColorPickerService.Instance.LaunchAsync() API from other applications

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Key Features

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Core Paste Actions

Advanced Paste provides several built-in paste transformations:

Paste as Plain Text

Remove all formatting and paste content as plain textShortcut: Ctrl+1 (in Advanced Paste window)

Paste as Markdown

Convert clipboard content to Markdown formatShortcut: Ctrl+2 (in Advanced Paste window)

Paste as JSON

Convert and format clipboard content as JSONShortcut: Ctrl+3 (in Advanced Paste window)

AI-Powered Paste

Transform clipboard content using AI prompts

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AI Integration

Advanced Paste integrates with multiple AI services for intelligent text transformation: 
// AI Service Support (from AdvancedPaste.csproj)
// Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Connectors.AzureAIInference
// Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Connectors.Google
// Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Connectors.MistralAI
// Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Connectors.Ollama
Supported AI providers:
  • Azure AI Inference
  • Google AI
  • MistralAI
  • Ollama (local AI models)
  • Custom OpenAI endpoints

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Custom Actions

Create and save custom paste transformations for frequently used operations:
  1. Open Advanced Paste window
  2. Navigate to custom actions section
  3. Define your transformation prompt
  4. Save and assign a keyboard shortcut

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Clipboard History Integration

Advanced Paste works seamlessly with Windows Clipboard History (Win+V) and provides preview controls for clipboard items.

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Configuration

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Settings Location

Settings are stored in: 
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\PowerToys\AdvancedPaste\settings.json

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Available Options

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CloseAfterLosingFocus
boolean
default:"false"
Automatically close the Advanced Paste window when it loses focus
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AdditionalActions
array
List of user-defined custom paste actions with prompts and shortcuts
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CustomActions
array
AI-powered custom actions with natural language transformation prompts
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IsCustomAIServiceEnabled
boolean
default:"false"
Enable custom AI service configuration for transformations

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Activation Shortcut

Configure the global hotkey to open Advanced Paste:
  1. Open PowerToys Settings
  2. Navigate to Advanced Paste
  3. Click on the activation shortcut field
  4. Press your desired key combination
  5. Click Save
Ensure the shortcut doesn’t conflict with other system or application shortcuts.

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Use Cases

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Format Conversion

Copy formatted content from a website or document, then use Advanced Paste to strip all formatting:
  1. Copy rich text content (Ctrl+C)
  2. Open Advanced Paste (Win+Shift+V)
  3. Select “Paste as Plain Text” or press Ctrl+1
Convert web content to Markdown for documentation:
  1. Copy HTML content from a webpage
  2. Open Advanced Paste
  3. Select “Paste as Markdown” (Ctrl+2)
Transform tabular data into JSON format:
  1. Copy table or structured data
  2. Open Advanced Paste
  3. Select “Paste as JSON” (Ctrl+3)

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AI-Powered Transformations

Prompt: "Summarize the following text in 2-3 sentences"
Input: [Long article from clipboard]
Output: Concise summary ready to paste

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Workflow Automation

Combine Advanced Paste with other PowerToys utilities:
  • Use Text Extractor to capture text from images, then transform with Advanced Paste
  • Copy file paths with File Explorer Add-ons, then format as needed
  • Extract data with PowerToys Run, then convert format with Advanced Paste

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Keyboard Shortcuts

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Global Shortcuts

ShortcutAction
Win+Shift+VOpen Advanced Paste window (default)

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In-App Shortcuts

When Advanced Paste window is open:
ShortcutAction
Ctrl+1Paste as Plain Text
Ctrl+2Paste as Markdown
Ctrl+3Paste as JSON
Ctrl+[N]Custom action N (user-configured)
EscClose window

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Technical Details

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Architecture

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Dependencies

  • Microsoft.SemanticKernel: AI transformation engine
  • ReverseMarkdown: HTML to Markdown conversion
  • System.Text.Json: JSON processing
  • WinUI 3: Modern Windows UI framework

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Source Code Reference

Key implementation files:
  • Main application: src/modules/AdvancedPaste/AdvancedPaste/Program.cs:19
  • Window management: src/modules/AdvancedPaste/AdvancedPaste/AdvancedPasteXAML/MainWindow.xaml.cs:31
  • Clipboard operations: src/modules/AdvancedPaste/AdvancedPaste/Helpers/ClipboardHelper.cs

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Troubleshooting

Possible causes:
  • Shortcut conflict with another application
  • GPO policy has disabled the utility
  • PowerToys is not running
Solutions:
  1. Check if PowerToys is running in system tray
  2. Verify shortcut in PowerToys Settings
  3. Contact IT administrator about GPO settings
Possible causes:
  • AI service not configured
  • Network connectivity issues
  • API key invalid or expired
Solutions:
  1. Open PowerToys Settings > Advanced Paste > AI Configuration
  2. Verify API credentials
  3. Test with local Ollama if available
Check:
  • Settings file permissions in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\PowerToys\AdvancedPaste
  • Disk space availability
  • File is not set as read-only

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See Also