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If you want to create a Context Menu option to copy an entire text file to the Clipboard in Windows 8, go through the tutorial below.

Sometimes you store some important information (like contact information, address details or any kind of signature texts that you need to add at the end of any document) in different .txt files and you may frequently need those .txt information to use them in other documents or form filling jobs. You first need to open those source .txt file using notepad, then need to select all the texts in that file and at last the copy operation. When you are doing a heavy copy-paste job, it becomes very time consuming because of iteration of these steps. What if you could do copy to clipboard operation with a simple context menu item instead? Yes, it is possible.

Using a little registry hacking it can be done easily. We can even hide it behind the Shift + Right-Click menu so that it won’t waste space on the Context menu. That means you have to hold down shift key while performing the Right-click operation on a text file to view Copy to Clipboard option in Context menu.

Follow the steps to know how to create a Context Menu option to copy an entire text file to the Clipboard.

Steps to create a Context Menu option to copy an entire text file to the Clipboard

1. At first you need to download Copy To clipboard reg.zip archive file from here and extract it. You will find two REG files.

2. Now, Double-click on AddCopyToClipboard.reg file. You will get a security warning. Click on Run option.

3. User Account Control (UAC) dialog box will pop up. click on Yes option.

4. You will get a registry editor dialog box. Select Yes option to continue the process.

5. Now, a registry editor confirmation message will appear. You have successfully added keys and values contained in CopyContentsToClipboardTXT.reg file to the registry.

Now hold down the shift key and Right-click on any text file and you can see Copy to Clipboard option is available in your context menu.

You can even create AddCopyToClipboard.reg file by yourself. Create a New text file and give a name whatever you want. Open the text file and copy the following lines there:-

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; add a context menu item to allow you to copy text files to the clipboard
; howtogeek.com

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile\shell\copytoclip]
@=”Copy to Clipboard”
"Extended”=”"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile\shell\copytoclip\command]
@=”cmd /c clip < \”%1\”"

Now, save the file. Finally change the extension of the file from .txt to .reg. Thus you can create your own AddCopyToClipboard.reg file.

Now, if you want to remove the Copy to Clipboard option from your context menu you have to add keys and values contained in RemoveCopyToClipboard.reg file to the registry. Just double-click on RemoveCopyToClipboard.reg file and follow all the steps described previously.