Copy any text you can see on screen.
Press a hotkey, drag a box over the text, let go: it is on your clipboard.
Download · Install · How to use it · Troubleshooting · Build
A lot of text on screen cannot be selected: an error dialog, a screenshot in a chat, a video, a game menu, a scanned PDF. Typing it out by hand is slow and error-prone. PowerToys has a Text Extractor, but installing all of PowerToys for one feature is a lot.
WinTextCapture does just this one job. It uses the OCR engine that is already built into Windows, so it works offline, with no account and no API key.
- One hotkey from anywhere:
Win + Shift + T, or pick your own. - Drag a box on any screen: multi-monitor and mixed-DPI aware;
Esccancels. - Windows OCR, on your PC: uses
Windows.Media.Ocr; nothing is uploaded. - Choose the OCR language from the ones installed in Windows, or leave it on automatic.
- Small and huge selections both work: tiny text is enlarged before OCR, and very large areas are reduced to the size Windows OCR accepts.
- Clear feedback: a short toast shows what was copied, or says plainly that no text was found. The clipboard is checked before it says "Copied".
- Quiet: lives in the tray, one copy at a time, optional start with Windows, Light, Dark or system theme, English and Turkish.
- Download
WinTextCapture.exefrom the latest release. - Put it anywhere, for example
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\WinTextCapture\, and run it. There is no installer, and nothing else to install: the file carries its own .NET runtime. - To start it with Windows, open Settings from the tray icon and tick Start with Windows.
Needs Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041) or later, or Windows 11.
The pictures here show the current code on main, which has a refreshed look (rounded toast card, tidier
settings and menu). The latest release, v1.0.2, works the same but looks slightly older. To get the new look
today, build from source; it arrives in the next release.
- Press
Win + Shift + T. The screen dims and shows Drag over text · Esc to cancel. - Drag a box over the text.
- Let go of the mouse button. A toast shows what was copied.
- Paste with
Ctrl + Vwherever you like.
You can also double-click the tray icon, or right-click it and choose Capture now.
Tray menu: Capture now, Settings, About, Exit.
Settings (right-click the tray icon, then Settings...):
- Capture hotkey: click the box, then press the keys you want. It takes priority over the Windows shortcut for the same keys.
- Recognition language: pick the language of the text you capture. For English text in games or apps,
English (en-US)usually beats Automatic. - Start with Windows, the interface Language (English or Turkish) and the Theme.
Where things are kept
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Settings | %APPDATA%\WinTextCapture\settings.json |
| Error log | %APPDATA%\WinTextCapture\error.log (small, size-limited) |
| Start with Windows | the usual Run entry in the current user's registry |
The hotkey does nothing, or PowerToys opens instead.
PowerToys Text Extractor uses the same Win + Shift + T by default. WinTextCapture usually wins, but not
always. Turn off or change the PowerToys shortcut, or pick another hotkey in WinTextCapture's settings.
The toast says no text was found. Draw the box a little larger than the text, and check the Recognition language. Windows can only read languages whose OCR support is installed: add one under Windows Settings → Time & language → Language & region (the language's optional features include OCR).
The text comes out wrong. Pick the exact language instead of Automatic. Very small text is enlarged automatically, but a very wide or tall box is shrunk to the size Windows OCR accepts; capture a smaller area if the text gets too small.
The toast says the clipboard did not change. Another program was holding the clipboard. WinTextCapture retries a few times and only says "Copied" after it has checked. Try again.
Start with Windows points at an old copy. Open Settings and save with Start with Windows ticked: the entry is updated to the copy you are running. On start, an entry whose program no longer exists is repaired; an entry pointing at another existing copy is left alone.
My settings were reset. A missing or unreadable settings file falls back to defaults, and a single bad value (for example an invalid hotkey) falls back on its own while the rest is kept. A failed save keeps the previous settings and hotkey.
WinTextCapture has no network code. The capture, the OCR and the clipboard all stay on your PC. It keeps only
its settings and a small error log in %APPDATA%\WinTextCapture\, and a startup entry if you ask for one.
You need the .NET 9 SDK on Windows 10 2004 or later.
git clone https://github.com/ydbilgin/WinTextCapture.git
cd WinTextCapture
dotnet run -c ReleaseA single exe that carries its own runtime, like the release:
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -p:PublishSingleFile=trueTests. A small test program with no extra packages. Some checks open test windows, so run it where a window may appear briefly (or on a hidden desktop). It never starts the tray app and never touches the startup registry entry.
dotnet build tests\WinTextCapture.Tests\WinTextCapture.Tests.csproj -c Release
dotnet run --project tests\WinTextCapture.Tests\WinTextCapture.Tests.csproj -c Release --no-buildIt prints the passed and failed counts and exits with 0 only when everything passed. Live desktop use,
mixed-DPI monitors, OCR accuracy and a busy clipboard still need a person to try.
Pictures. The README pictures come from the app itself, drawn off-screen with default settings and a made-up notepad page:
WinTextCapture.exe --screenshot docs/settings-dark.png Dark en
WinTextCapture.exe --screenshot-toast docs/toast-copied-dark.png Dark en copiedOther modes: --screenshot-tray and --screenshot-overlay, with the same theme and language arguments.
Demo GIF. docs/demo.gif is an animation drawn from docs/demo/scene.html; re-render it with
node docs/demo/render.mjs. See docs/demo/README-demo.md.
| File | Job |
|---|---|
TrayApplicationContext.cs |
tray icon, menu, settings, starting a capture, showing the result |
KeyboardHook.cs, KeyboardHookState.cs |
the global hotkey and its testable state machine |
OverlayForm.cs |
the dimmed screen, the selection, OCR and the clipboard write |
OcrImagePreprocessor.cs |
enlarges small selections and limits large ones before OCR |
ClipboardWriter.cs |
retries and checks clipboard writes |
CaptureMessageFormatter.cs, ToastForm.cs |
the toast text and card |
Settings.cs, SettingsForm.cs |
loading, checking and saving preferences, and the settings window |
AutoStartDecision.cs, AutoStart.cs |
the start-with-Windows entry |
CrashLog.cs, CrashLogger.cs |
the size-limited error log |
tests/WinTextCapture.Tests |
the test program |