Replacing default paste behavior in Windows 11

Clipboard URL Shortener Implementation Guide

Powershell Script

This PowerShell script checks the clipboard for a YouTube URL. If it finds one, it converts it to a shortened youtu.be URL and updates the clipboard with this new URL.

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms

$clipboardText = Get-Clipboard

if ($clipboardText -match 'https://(www\.|music\.)?youtube\.com/watch\?v=([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)') {
    $videoID = $matches[2]
    $shortUrl = "https://youtu.be/$videoID"
    Set-Clipboard -Value $shortUrl  # Update the clipboard with the shortened URL
} else {
    Set-Clipboard -Value $clipboardText  # Retain the original clipboard text if it's not a YouTube URL
}
        

AutoHotkey Script

This AutoHotkey script intercepts the Ctrl+V keystroke to execute the PowerShell script and then perform a paste operation using Shift+Insert.

^v::
{
    RunWait("C:\Users\joe\bin\yurl.ps1", "", "Hide") ;
    Send("+{Insert}")  ; Perform paste operation using Shift+Insert
}
return
        

How It Works

When you press Ctrl+V, the AutoHotkey script runs the PowerShell script. If the clipboard contains a YouTube URL, the PowerShell script converts it to a shortened youtu.be URL and updates the clipboard. The AutoHotkey script then simulates a Shift+Insert keystroke to paste the (potentially modified) clipboard content, replacing the default Windows paste behavior with shortened URLs. To avoid breaking pasting images, simply use shift+insert if you know the content is graphical. Still working around this.