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Copy Text in Windows Terminal: Right-Click, Shortcuts, and Auto-Copy

Windows Terminal includes clipboard copying by default. Learn the right-click and keyboard methods, enable automatic copying for mouse selections, and work around mouse-mode applications.
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Windows Terminal already includes clipboard copying. Select text with the mouse, then right-click to copy it—or use a copy shortcut. To copy each new mouse selection immediately, enable the global copyOnSelect setting in Settings JSON.

Copy a selection with the default behavior

  1. Left-click and drag over the text you want to copy.

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  2. Right-click to copy the selected text to the clipboard.

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  3. Paste it into another app with Ctrl+V, or use one of the other default paste bindings listed below.

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With the default setting, the selection stays visible until you copy it. The next right-click pastes instead of copying. Microsoft documents this interaction in its Windows Terminal interaction settings and selection guide.

Copy every new mouse selection automatically

Set copyOnSelect to true in the root of Windows Terminal’s settings JSON. Microsoft documents the setting as optional and false by default; when enabled, a mouse selection is copied as soon as it is created.

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  1. Open Windows Terminal and select Settings from the tab menu.

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  2. Choose Open JSON file in Settings. If your version presents a different label, use the Settings option that opens the JSON configuration file.

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  3. Add the property to the top-level settings object, keeping any existing settings and adding a comma where required:

    {
      "copyOnSelect": true
    }
  4. Save the file. Make a new mouse selection to confirm it copies immediately.

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With this option enabled, right-click pastes. A selection made or changed with the keyboard is not automatically copied; use a copy action or right-click to copy that selection. See Microsoft’s interaction setting reference.

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Choose the right copy and paste shortcut

Windows Terminal’s documented default bindings include these alternatives. A user may have changed the bindings in their settings.

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Action Default bindings
Copy selected text Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Shift+C, Ctrl+Insert, or Enter
Paste Ctrl+V, Ctrl+Shift+V, or Shift+Insert

Ctrl+C is not always intercepted as a copy command: if no text is selected, the key chord is sent to the shell or terminal application. This matters in command-line work, where Ctrl+C is commonly used to interrupt a running command. The defaults and copy-action options are listed in Microsoft’s actions and keybindings reference.

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Fix mouse selection in WSL or terminal applications

Some applications running in WSL or another virtual-terminal session use mouse mode and capture mouse input. If dragging selects or interacts with the application instead of highlighting terminal text, hold Shift while selecting. Microsoft describes this workaround in its Windows Terminal tips and tricks.

Keep clipboard formatting separate from copy-on-select

copyOnSelect controls when a mouse selection is copied. It does not enable rich-text formatting. The separate global copyFormatting setting defaults to false, which copies plain text. Microsoft lists true, false, "all", "none", "html", and "rtf" as accepted values, and labels this formatting option experimental. See the interaction settings reference before relying on formatted-copy behavior.

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For ordinary clipboard use, leave formatting alone. The copy action also has optional parameters such as singleLine, withControlSequences, and dismissSelection; these refine how a copy action works and are not needed to copy a normal selection. Microsoft documents them in the copy action reference.

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