# $clipboard = Gtk::Clipboard.get('PRIMARY')... under windows

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/clipboard-gtk-clipboard-get-primary-under-windows/146898>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 26, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/clipboard-gtk-clipboard-get-primary-under-windows/146898 "2008-08-26T15:51:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bikle](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bikle](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bikle)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/clipboard-gtk-clipboard-get-primary-under-windows/146898/1 "2008-08-26T15:51:44Z")

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I need to be able to read text that has been selected in another  
application under windows. Using $clipboard =  
Gtk::Clipboard.get(‘PRIMARY’) works fantastically well under Linux, but  
I’d like my application to work on both Windows and Linux. I noticed in  
the documentation that the afforementioned only works with X and that it  
is completely ineffective under win32, but there are no workarounds  
suggested…

Does anyone have one? Is this just completely impossible to do in  
Windows?