Clippy is a small, multifunctional Windows productivity tool for programmers and other power users. Clippy runs in the background and provides a powerful clipboard history, easy uploading of screenshots, files, and text, and optional features to improve your health when using a computer for long periods of time.
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Clipboard history Clippy's main purpose is to store in a database any text items that are copied to the Windows clipboard, which can later be easily retrieved. The usefulness of this for programming cannot be understated!
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Screenshots Clippy can take screenshots and upload them, as well as easily upload files, zips, and text/pastes. Uploading can be done via FTP, SFTP, imgur.com, and/or pastebin.com.
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Break warnings Clippy can display a gentle reminder when you have been at the computer too long. This helps to avoid the unhealthy effects of being sedentary. Damage done by sitting for long periods is not undone by being active at other times. It's suggested to stand up for 5 minutes every hour.
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Blue light filter Clippy can filter the blue light emitted by your monitor based on the time of day. This is useful to reduce your exposure to blue light in the evening, which can otherwise interfere with your sleep schedule, melatonin production, and circadian rhythm, potentially leading to delayed sleep phase disorder.
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Eye tracking Clippy can use a Tobii Eye Tracker 4C to control the mouse. Just look at the screen where you want to click and press a hotkey.
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Auto lock Clippy can automatically lock your workstation when you are gone. It uses your keyboard and mouse inputs and optionally Tobii eye tracking to detect if you are there.
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Lighting control Clippy can control Philips Hue lights based on the time of day. Similar to blue light filtering for your monitor, this can help your body recognize when it is evening time and improve both your sleep schedule and quality of sleep.
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Dyanmic DNS Clippy can keep your IP in sync with DnsMadeEasy so you can always access your computer.
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IR transceiver Clippy can control a USB-UIRT to learn, send, and receiver IR codes to control your computer via IR or control other devices.
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Plugin code Write your own Java code to control lighting, respond to events like receiving an IR code or a Philips Hue button being pressed, and more.
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It is very common to copy multiple pieces of text. Since the Windows clipboard only holds a single item, without Clippy this means finding and copying the same text many times.
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Clippy can be used simply to keep text safe, in case it is needed later. While writing an email or before refactoring code, you can select the text and copy it, knowing that Clippy has stored it should you ever need it again in the future.
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Previously copied text can be browsed by pressing the history popup hotkey. Search the clipboard history by simply typing any portion of the text. Any text you've ever copied can be easily found later, which can be useful for phone numbers, passwords, etc. Clippy's database can efficiently store millions of clips.
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Use a hotkey to take a screenshot of the whole screen, the foreground application, or draw a rectangle with the mouse. Clippy will upload the image and paste a URL to it.
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Text pasted from Clippy's popup is always plain text. This means Clippy can be used to quickly strip unwanted formatting from text.
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When files are copied, Clippy stores the file paths as text. This makes it easy to copy a file and paste its path to the command line, a file dialog, or elsewhere.
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Uploading and sharing files is as easy as copying, then pressing the upload hotkey.
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Losing track of time can mean sitting at the computer for many hours without noticing. Clippy provides a reminder of how long you have been using the computer without a break, helping to avoid abuse of your body.
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Working in front of a bright screen at night can interfere with your sleep schedule. In the evening hours, Clippy can reduce both your monitor's brightness and the lighting in your home or office, reducing blue light which would otherwise prevent melatonin production and make going to sleep more difficult.
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Clippy is designed to make common tasks very easy, without the bloat and clutter of unnecessary features.
Download the latest version of Clippy here:
There is no installation, instead Clippy is provided as two files. Clippy.exe is an executable that automatically finds Java and runs Clippy. Alternatively, Clippy.jar can be run directly either by double clicking or with javaw -jar Clippy.jar. Both files are not needed, each file is the whole app.
It is highly recommended to run Clippy using 64-bit Java. Clippy may run much more slowly if 32-bit Java is used. To be sure of which Java installation Clippy uses, run it from the command line using the:
C:\path\to\64-bit\Java\javaw -jar C:\path\to\Clippy.jar
Clippy runs in the background as an icon in the system tray and can be exited by clicking the system tray icon.
Clippy stores any text items that are placed on the clipboard and waits for hotkeys to show the clipboard history popup and take other actions.
The default hotkey to show the clipboard history popup is ctrl+shift+insert. The popup shows the most recent clipboard items and you may begin typing to search the entire history. The following keys are available on the popup:
upordownselects an item.enterputs the selected item on the clipboard, hides the popup, and pastes it.homeorendselects the first or last item.page uporpage downshows additional pages of items.escapeor clicking outside the popup hides the popup.ctrl+shift+deletedeletes the selected item.ctrl+shift+enteruploads the item as text and puts a link on the clipboard.
The entire search history can be searched simply by typing while the popup is open. Items containing any of the typed text are shown, sorted be most recently used first. % can be used as a wildcard. Use \% to search for a percent sign.
A menu is shown on the popup by pressing alt. Once shown, the numbers 0-9 can be pressed to choose an item. Pressing alt plus a number can be used as a shortcut. For example, alt+2 will paste the second item in the list.
The Lock items checkbox shown at the bottom of the popup when alt is pressed prevents the order of items from changing when an existing item is chosen. This can be useful when pasting a number of different entries using number keys.
The default hotkey to take a region screenshot is ctrl+alt+\. Once activated, click and drag to specify the rectangular region to screenshot. The resulting image is uploaded and a link is placed on the clipboard when the upload is complete. Pressing ctrl+shift+\ repeats the last region screenshot. The default hotkey to screenshot the foreground window is ctrl+alt+shift+\. The hotkey to screenshot the whole window is not mapped by default.
While taking a region screenshot, hold shift to move more slowly and ctrl to lock to the X or Y axis.
Clippy stores its configuration file and the database in user folder, under the .clippy subfolder. The config.json file can be edited to configure Clippy. For example, you can customize the popup and other hotkeys, the number of items shown on the popup, and more.
Hotkeys are described using these constants with the "VK_" prefix omitted.
Clippy has 3 settings for uploading:
- Text can be uploaded to FTP, SFTP, or pastebin.com.
- Images can be uploaded to FTP, SFTP, or imgur.com.
- Files can be uploaded to FTP or SFTP.
The default settings use pastebin for text, imagur for images, and disallow file upload. FTP and SFTP must be configured in the config.json file before use.
Clippy can adjust the Windows gamma based on the time of day. Gamma controls the amount of red, green, and blue displayed on the screen. The gamma changes are defined as a timeline:
gamma: [
{ time: 6:00am, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
{ time: 6:00pm, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
{ time: 9:00pm, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 0.7, b: 0.6 }
{ time: 5:30am, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 0.7, b: 0.6 }
]
The r, g, and b values are percentages where 0 means none of that color and 1 means the normal amount, before Clippy's changes. The r, g, and b values are multiplied by the brightness. The percentages are smoothly interpolated between the times. The timeline above works as follows:
6:00am to 6:00pm: transition from 1, 1, 1, 1 to 1, 1, 1, 1 (no change)
6:00pm to 9:00pm: transition from 1, 1, 1, 1 to 1, 1, 0.7, 0.6
9:00pm to 5:30am: transition from 1, 1, 0.7, 0.6 to 1, 1, 0.7, 0.6 (no change)
5:30am to 6:00am: transition from 1, 1, 0.7, 0.6 to 1, 1, 1, 1
For Windows to allow setting the full range of gamma, this registry value needs to be set to 256 (0x100, DWORD).
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ICM\GdiIcmGammaRange
Colors can be described as RGB values, as shown above, or as a color temperature:
gamma: [
{ time: 6:00am, brightness: 1, kelvin: 6500 }
{ time: 6:00pm, brightness: 1, kelvin: 6500 }
{ time: 9:00pm, brightness: 0.8, kelvin: 3800 }
{ time: 5:30am, brightness: 0.8, kelvin: 3800 }
]
Times can be described using 12 hour time, as shown above, or 24 hour time:
gamma: [
{ time: 06:00, brightness: 1, kelvin: 6500 }
{ time: 18:00, brightness: 1, kelvin: 6500 }
{ time: 21:00, brightness: 0.8, kelvin: 3800 }
{ time: 05:30, brightness: 0.8, kelvin: 3800 }
]
Time can also be describe using sunrise:xxx or sunset:xxx where xxx is your latitude. Time can be relative to the sunrise or sunset by using sunset+12:xxx or sunset-12:xxx where 12 is the number of minutes to add or subtract.
gamma: [
{ time: sunrise:43.4357, brightness: 1, kelvin: 6500 }
{ time: sunset-60:43.4357, brightness: 1, kelvin: 6500 }
{ time: sunset+120:43.4357, brightness: 0.8, kelvin: 3800 }
{ time: sunrise-30:43.4357, brightness: 0.8, kelvin: 3800 }
]
The toggleHotkey toggles the gamma between Clippy's gamma and 100%. This can be useful when watching videos or doing tasks that require seeing correct colors.
toggleHotkey: ctrl shift alt Z
Some applications may interfere with the Windows gamma. For example, some OpenGL applications reset the gamma to 100% when they close. This is relatively rare, but if this happens, clicking the Clippy icon in the system tray will reapply Clippy's gamma setting. You could also use the toggle hotkey twice to toggle gamma off and then back on.
By default, Windows limits the range of gamma values from 0.5 to 1. This is a safeguard against software setting the gamma to 0 so you only see a black screen. To remove these limits, apply this registry file and reboot. Clippy still prevents gamma from being set so low that the screen is completely black.
Other software such as f.lux or Sunset Screen can also adjust the gamma, but they provide only day and night settings while Clippy's timeline allows for any number of transitions. Also, Clippy allows the red, green, and blue amounts to be set separately. By reducing the green slightly less than the blue, the red tint on the screen will be much less noticeable.
Research shows that sitting for long periods of time is detrimental to your health and is not mitigated by extended activity at other times. Clippy can monitor keyboard and mouse access and provide a warning when the computer has been used without a break for too long. A popup is shown in the bottom right corner of the screen which displays the number of minutes without a break. Set breakWarningMinutes to zero to disable. breakResetMinutes sets the duration of the break, after which the popup is hidden.
breakWarningMinutes: 55
breakResetMinutes: 5
By default Clippy plays an obnoxious sound when a break needs to be taken and another periodically every breakReminderMinutes if the break warning is ignored. This can help you to remember to take a break, as it soon becomes easy to ignore the warning popup. The warning sound is played periodically at increasing volume if a break is not taken. The default settings use the default sounds, but the sounds can be changed by specifying a file path. Set to null to disable. Set breakReminderMinutes to 0 to not be reminded after the initial warning.
breakStartSound: breakStart
breakFlashSound: breakFlash
breakEndSound: breakEnd
breakReminderMinutes: 5
The toggleHotkey toggles the break warning dialog. This can be useful when watching videos or accessing something the dialog covers. When toggled back on, the break time is remembered.
toggleHotkey: ctrl shift alt Z
Clippy enables control of the mouse using your eyes and a Tobii Eye Tracker 4C. Look where you want to click, then press the hotkey to click at that position.
tobiiEnabled: true
tobiiClickHotkey: CAPS_LOCK
When eye tracking is accurate, mouse control is unreal -- it feels like your brain is controlling the computer! However, often it is not perfectly accurate and can be off the target by 0.4-1" (1-2.5cm). Clippy solves this by using head tracking when you hold down the hotkey. Head tracking is much more accurate, but not suitable for moving the mouse across the entire screen. Clippy uses eye tracking to move the mouse large distances and head tracking to make fine adjustments.
When the hotkey is pressed, the mouse is placed at (or near) the position on the screen where you are looking. While holding the hotkey, move your head left, right, up, or down slightly to move the mouse. This allows you to adjust for any eye tracking inaccuracy. The mouse is clicked when you release the hotkey.
When you use head tracking to correct where eye tracking position placed the mouse, you give Clippy information about the eye tracker's innaccuracy at that location. Clippy uses this to improve the accuracy of future eye tracking at that location and nearby locations.
Double clicking and dragging both work similar to a touchpad. To double click, press the hotkey, position the mouse cursor, release the hotkey, then press and release the hotkey again. To drag, press the hotkey, position the mouse cursor, release the hotkey, then press and hold the hotkey, position the mouse cursor again to drag, then release the hotkey.
Move the mouse (or press shift) while holding the hotkey to cancel head tracking without clicking. This enables eye tracking to teleport the mouse cursor near where you want it, and then you can use the mouse to adjust the position rather than head tracking. This is similar to Tobii's "mouse warp", but is triggered only when you press the hotkey rather than all the time.
The sensitivity settings control how head movement (millimeters) is translated to mouse cursor movement (pixels). Higher numbers cause head movement to move the mouse cursor more. It can be helpful to use a higher sensitivity for the Y axis, since it's more difficult to move your head up and down.
tobiiHeadSensitivityX: 7
tobiiHeadSensitivityY: 9.5
Clippy can automatically lock your workstation after a set time has elapsed if you have not pressed any keys or moved the mouse. If Tobii eye tracking is enabled, it seeing your eyes will prevent the automatic locking.
autoLockSeconds: 90
Clippy can connect to a Philips Hue bridge and adjust the color of lights based on the time of day. philipsHueEnabled must be set to true to enable connecting to the Philips Hue bridge. Most users won't configure philipsHueIP and philipsHueUser manually. Instead, leave them set to null and Clippy will search for your Philips Hue bridge and configure the two settings automatically.
philipsHueEnabled: true
philipsHueIP: null
philipsHueUser: null
When Clippy is first run with these settings, it will prompt to press the link button of the Philips hue bridge. Afterward Clippy will store the bridge information and will connect automatically in the future.
philipsHueEnabled: true
philipsHueIP: 192.168.1.12
philipsHueUser: mqEFxXynUbikLs1VaKUrp1CdjCkK1lUYCGzopxA
The philipsHue setting has a list of lights, each with 1 or more timelines which work in the same way as the gamma setting.
philipsHue: [
{
name: Desk lamp
model: null
switch: null
timelines: {
on: [
{ time: sunrise:43.4357, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
{ time: 7:00pm, brightness: 0.8, r: 1, g: 0.8, b: 0.6 }
{ time: 4:30am, brightness: 0.8, r: 1, g: 0.8, b: 0.6 }
]
}
}
{
name: group:Bedroom
model: LCT001
switch: null
timelines: {
on: [
{ time: 1:00pm, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
{ time: 2:00pm, brightness: 1, r: 0.6, g: 0, b: 0 }
{ time: sunset:43.4357, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
]
}
}
]
name is the name of a single light which will be controlled by the section. If name is null, the section will control all lights. If name begins with group: then the section will control that group, for example group:Office would control the group named Office. Groups can be setup using the Hue mobile phone app, which calls them "rooms".
The on timeline is used when the light is turned on normally. See switches below for switching to other timelines.
Colors are specified as described above. Each Philips Hue light model supports a specific color gamut. When setting the color of all lights or for a group, the model setting is used to convert the r, g, b into a color the specified light model can use. When setting the color of a single light, the light's actual model is used and the model setting is ignored.
Lights can be turned on or off by specifying the power state:
philipsHue: [
{
name: Desk lamp
model: null
switch: null
timelines: {
on: [
{ time: sunrise:43.4357, power: on, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
{ time: 7:00pm, brightness: 0.8, r: 1, g: 0.8, b: 0.6 }
{ time: 4:30am, power: off, brightness: 0.8, r: 1, g: 0.8, b: 0.6 }
]
}
}
]
Clippy has special support for Philips Hue Dimmer Switches, which make it very convenient to turn lights on and off, dim or brighten lights, and to switch between various lighting timelines while still allowing Clippy to control the lights color and brightness based on the time of day.
If light colors are changed using the Hue mobile app or other software, Clippy will overwrite the changes the next time it sends a command based on the time of day. Clippy would need to query every light to detect that it has changed, which is not feasible when controlling groups of lights or all lights. Because of this, you will want to use one or more Philips Hue Dimmer Switches to control your lights.
The switch setting can be set to the name of the dimmer switch used to control lights in that section. When the switch is used to dim or brighten, Clippy will cease controlling brightness (but still controls color) for the number of minutes specified by philipsHueDisableMinutes. To return control to Clippy sooner, press the on button momentarily or hold the on or off buttons to change to an alternate timeline.
In the Hue mobile phone app, edit the switch and set rooms for the on button to define which lights it will control. Next, set each of the 5 presses to "last state". This will avoid the lights from flashing, since when the on button is pressed you'd see the scene lighting briefly before Clippy applies its lighting.
When the Hue mobile phone app adds a new switch, it sets up rules for the 4 switch buttons. The rule for the off button is to turn off the lights as soon as the button goes down, which would mean that the light is off by the time Clippy changes to the offHeld timeline. To fix this, Clippy automatically modifies the off button rule when an offHeld timeline is defined to happen only when the off button is pressed momentarily. To restore the old behavior, run Clippy without an offHeld timeline defined.
Specifying a switch name enables alternate timelines by holding the on or off buttons:
philipsHue: [
{
name: group:Bedroom
model: LCT001
switch: Bedroom switch
timelines: {
on: [
{ time: 1:00pm, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
{ time: 2:00pm, brightness: 1, r: 0.6, g: 0, b: 0 }
{ time: sunset:43.4357, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
]
onHeld: [
{ time: 12:00am, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
]
offHeld: [
{ time: 12:00am, brightness: 0.15, r: 1, g: 0.7, b: 0.5 }
{ time: 4:00pm, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 0, b: 0 }
]
}
}
]
The on timeline is used when the light is turned on normally. The onHeld and offHeld timelines are used after the respective on or off buttons are held down for a few seconds. To return to the on timeline, press the on button momentarily.
If an onHeld or offHeld timeline has only one entry and that entry does not have a time, then after the one entry is applied the on timeline is set as the active timeline. Using this sort of "momentary" timeline allows holding a button to turn everything off but without staying on that timeline, which gives another timeline the ability to turn the lights back on. For example, this configuration allows holding off to turn off everything, but the on timeline will still turn the lights on in the morning.
{
name: group:Bedroom
model: LCT001
switch: Bed switch
timelines: {
offHeld: [
{ power: off, brightness: 0, r: 0, g: 0, b: 0 }
]
on: [
{ time: 7:00am, power: on, brightness: 0, r: 1, g: 0, b: 0 }
{ time: 7:30am, brightness: 1, r: 1, g: 1, b: 1 }
{ time: 10:59pm, brightness: 0.74, r: 1, g: 0.7, b: 0.5 }
{ time: 11:00pm, brightness: 0.6, r: 1, g: 0, b: 0 }
]
}
}