Как скопировать текст из диалоговых окон Windows 10

Согласитесь, что когда работаешь за компьютером, то зачастую, возникают ситуации, что просто необходимо скопировать текст из диалоговых окон Windows 10, вот только не все пользователи новой операционной системы знаю, как это можно сделать без использования сторонних программ и приложений. Именно по этой причине, мы и постараемся вам сегодня рассказать, что делаем мы в данных ситуациях и что из этого получается.

Описанный ниже способ, можно использовать даже при условии, что у вас появилась потребность копирования текста при появление различного рода диалоговых окон, в которых указан код ошибки, который в свою очередь, не возможно запомнить, но при всем при этом, данный код вместе со всем текстом, совершенно не выделяется.

Как только перед вами открылось то самое диалоговое окно, где необходимо скопировать текст, нажимайте «горячее сочетание клавиш» Ctrl+С (обратите внимание, что пытаться выделять нечего не нужно, просто нажали Ctrl+С при появление окна и все). Данное действие позволит вам увидеть сообщение об ошибке, но не стоит беспокоиться, так как в любом случае, текст из первично появившегося диалогового окна будет скопирован в «буфер».

Теперь, открываете любой текстовый документ и используя «горячие клавиши» Ctrl+V вставляете в него ранее скопированный текст из диалогового окна.

Обратите внимание, что когда текст будет вставлен, то вы увидите вместе с основным сообщением об ошибки и дополнительные теги, которые используются в программирование и скопированное вами сообщение, будет выглядеть как скриншот ниже.

Понятное дело, что в тексте будет достаточно много лишнего, но согласитесь, что здесь присутствует основной текст сообщения об ошибке, который непосредственно вам и был необходим.

Единственный минус данного способа заключается в том, что скопировать текст из диалоговых окон Windows 10 в так называемых «универсальных приложения» не получится. Но согласитесь и плюс данного способа не маленький, так как сторонними приложениями пользоваться не придется, тем более, они зачастую копирую текст не всегда корректно и так же, не могут убирать системные теги.

Copy text from open windows and dialog boxes with GetWindowText

Many a time we need to copy error messages, error codes, or other text from images, dialog boxes, or open windows, which are otherwise “un-copy-able“. While one can always write down the text manually, this can be a pain if the text is too long.

If you are using Microsoft Office, you can use its in-built tool called Microsoft Office Document Imaging which will allow you to extract text from tiff and mdi files. We have also earlier seen freeware tools to copy text from images like OCR and Gttext.

Copy text from open windows

GetWindowText is a very small and portable program that allows you to read and copy the text in open windows.

If you have some open folder or a program window open and you need to copy the text in it you can do so easily using this tool. Simply click the left mouse-button on the GetWindowText icon on the left side and by holding down the left mouse button, the read can be started.

Then simply hold your mouse over the window from which the text should be read and copied. When you release the mouse button, the reading will be finished. The text will appear in the text-box which you can then copy.

This Windows freeware can be read almost all the texts from Edit, Static, Groupbox Controls, and so on. It also supports directory trees (SysTreeView32), combobox, and list views (SysListView32) to read the entire contents.

Get Window Text works on all Windows and supports x64 and x32 operating systems too.

Click here to download GetWindowText.

Take a look at Textify too.

Date: December 28, 2018 Tags: Explorer, Freeware

How do I copy text from a dialog box? [closed]

Want to improve this question? Update the question so it’s on-topic for Super User.

Closed 4 years ago .

In Windows sometimes I get an error dialog with long text. Manually typing out the exact details of an error message can be an annoying and lengthy process.

Is there way to copy text from a Windows dialog box?

7 Answers 7

Try just hitting Ctrl + C while the dialog has focus. If it is a normal modal Windows message box, it will put the text in the dialog in the clipboard for you.

The copied text should look something like this:

If you have OneNote, you can take a screen clip, then right-click the pasted image (in OneNote) and select «Copy Text from Picture».

I usually have success with it. Sometimes I need to do a little editing though.

A bit of an old question, but here is a different solution:

For windows that don’t natively support Ctrl+C, there are several utilities which will poke around all current processes and let you pull the text from standard window objects (listboxes, comboboxes, etc.)

I used one years ago that worked well, but can’t remember the name of it. Here’s another I just found by doing a quick search:

For dialogs and controls that don’t have a copy ability built-in, I prefer to use WinSpy++ to capture the raw text. (You simply use the picker-tool to select the window/control in question and then copy the text from the caption field.)

This page lists 7 programs for that (in case Ctrl+C doesn’t work). ShoWin 2.0 is by McAfee and works fine though i wish its preview was a little bigger.

There’s also Textify, which can grab text with a mouse click.

Have you ever wanted to copy some text from a dialog box which doesn’t provide such functionality?

Textify was created to solve this problem: you can point your mouse over the text, click on the mouse shortcut (Shift + Middle click by default), and get a selectable view of the text.

This came up in my search for “copy windows title” and though OP is specifically requesting the contents of a dialog; if you wanted to copy more “locked” text from a window there is ‘Microsoft Spy ++’. It’s what most of those are emulating as it’s been around A LONG time, before it had the Microsoft tag. It’s also more current than most of those suggest and will have longer support. It’s always been installed with Visual Studio (non-express) since at least 6.0; so if you have VS, search ‘spy’. It allows you to look at a lot of things like controls and text from windows. You can download the current and previous version here: http://mdb-blog.blogspot.com/2010/11/microsoft-spy-or-spyxx-for-download.html Basic start, click the goggles and then drag the target to the window you want info from, click ok and then you can go through things. For more information search on how to use.

Tip: Window Caption text box isn’t so friendly, either from start or pressing home to get to start, hold shift and hit end then Ctrl+C to copy entire title. (Ctrl+A nor triple click work)

How to copy text from dialog boxes in Windows 8.1

Sometimes, while using Windows, you need to copy the text from the some message box which appears on your screen. For example, some application may show you an error message or crash details. In such a scenario, you would want to copy its text to the clipboard so you can paste it in Google’s search box or into your Instant Messaging software to discuss it with your friend or support engineer. Well, here’s a trick that you may not be aware of.

Simply press the Ctrl+C hotkey to copy the message box text!
For example, suppose you got the following message box:

Do not click the OK button, press the CTR+C hotkey instead. Then you can press OK to close the message. You will get the following copied to your clipboard:

This is one of my favorite Windows features.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

10 thoughts on “ How to copy text from dialog boxes in Windows 8.1 ”

Excellent : this could be very useful. Thank you ! 🙂

You are welcome

Wow, this is excellent! This is an Ubuntu feature I missed on Windows.

This worked on Windows 7.

and in Windows Vista

I run Windows 8.1 as a virtual machine (VMware Fusion). Shouldn’t the trick above work in this environment?

It works fine in the VM environment.

Well, it don’t work for me. Could there be some kind of setting that needs to be done?

AFAIK, there is no option/tweak related to this behaviour.

Okay, it seems to work on Windows’ internal dialog boxes. I have an error message from Windows Server Essentials’ Connector setup which does not follow this behaviour.

Textify lets you copy unselectable text on Windows dialog boxes

Many times, we want to copy text from such dialog boxes, which at times may not be possible with the Ctrl+C command. For instance, let’s assume that you have installed software and after finishing the installation, it is displaying a short how-to, and you wish to copy that text to your Notepad. You may try to right-click and select the text or press Ctrl+C. But this may not work at times. At such times you can make use of a freeware called Textify. Like GetWindowText, GTText or JOCR, Textify too lets you copy unselectable text on Windows dialog boxes.

Copy unselectable text

Textify is a free portable software available that works on almost all versions of Windows including Windows 10/8/1/8/7/Vista. There is no other special system requirement for this Windows freeware.

To get started with Textify, download it and click on its executable file to open it.

It offers very few options and that is why it is very easy to use. You do not have to understand anything, in order to copy the unselectable text on Windows from any software dialog or system error message window. When you receive such a dialog box, make sure that the box remains open, otherwise, it won’t work.

To copy unselectable text, pen the Textify tool, click on the dialog box or error message window, and press Shift+Middle button of your mouse. You will see the text selection bar as follows:

Now select, copy, and paste the text to anywhere including Notepad, Word, etc.

If you are using a laptop without an external mouse, you may not have the middle button of your mouse (wheel). At such times, you can change the default settings. You can select Ctrl or Alt instead of Shift, which is the default, and right or left mouse button or click.

That is all there is to it.

If you like, you can download this software from here. Let us know how it works for you.