Ditto overview: clipboard history that survives the next copy
What Ditto does
Ditto is a free, open source clipboard manager for Windows. It runs in the notification area, watches the clipboard, and appends every item it sees to a database instead of allowing the previous contents to be overwritten and lost. Text, images, HTML fragments and application-specific clipboard formats are all kept, with the time, source application and (optionally) a description attached to each entry. A global hotkey opens the history as a searchable list, so recovering something copied an hour ago is a matter of typing a few characters. Because entries live in a local database rather than in memory alone, history survives restarts and can be pushed to other machines over the network when that option is enabled, with the traffic protected by a shared key. The program is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
How a typical session works
After installing, Ditto sits in the tray and starts recording. Pressing the hotkey opens the main window with a search box focused, the newest clip highlighted, and the full history below it. Typing filters the list by content or by source application; pressing Enter pastes the selected item back into whatever window had focus. Entries can be pinned so that frequently used snippets stay at the top, edited as plain text, grouped into folders, or deleted individually, and the same window offers an option to paste without formatting when the target application would otherwise inherit unwanted styling. A separate properties dialog holds the database location, hotkeys, backup behaviour and the network synchronisation settings.
Settings, practical limits and tuning
The options worth reviewing early are the database path, the hotkey combination, the maximum number of entries and the size cap for images, because an uncapped history can grow to hundreds of megabytes. Multi-monitor users can choose which corner the window appears in, and keyboard-driven users can turn on search-as-you-type and single-click paste. Synchronisation requires all participating machines to share the same sync key and to be able to reach each other, typically on a local network, and it should not be used across untrusted links. The application is Windows only, there is no cloud account, and because it captures everything copied it is worth remembering that passwords copied to the clipboard will also be stored unless the source application marks them as sensitive.
When to choose something else
If you only ever need the last thing you copied, the clipboard history built into recent Windows versions is already there and needs no install. If you want encrypted, cross-device sync through a vendor cloud with mobile clients, a commercial clipboard service will be easier. If what you actually need is frequently typed text expansion rather than history, a text expander is the sharper tool. And if clipboard contents are regulated data, an unencrypted local history may be a compliance problem rather than a convenience. Ditto suits people who copy constantly and want their own machine to remember all of it.
- Best for
- Anyone who copies and pastes all day and wants a searchable local history of text, images and formatted fragments.
- Good to know
- Clipboard history is stored locally in a database, and network sync needs the same key on every machine and a trusted network.
How to get started
- Download the setup executable from the official release page and run it.
- Leave Ditto running in the notification area; it begins recording clipboard items immediately.
- Press the global hotkey to open the history window and start typing to search for an earlier clip.
- Select an entry and press Enter to paste it, or pin the ones you reuse most often.
- Open the options dialog to set the database location, entry limits, hotkeys and, if you want it, network sync.
Questions & answers
Where is my clipboard history stored?
In a local database whose location you choose in the options, so history survives a restart and can be backed up with the rest of your files.
Can I share clips between computers?
Yes. Enable network sync, give every machine the same sync key, and keep the traffic on a network you trust.
Will it paste formatted text?
By default it pastes the stored format, and the same window offers a plain-text paste when a target application should receive no styling.
