Installing on Windows

Install it

1. Download RealtimeClipboard_<version>_x64_en-US.msi from the releases page, or use the button on the download page, which picks the file for you.
2. Run it. There is no administrator prompt and no options to choose — it installs per machine, registers no service and no driver.
3. The app opens a window and puts an icon in the notification area.

There is also a -setup.exe in the same release. It is an NSIS installer of the identical build; take the .msi unless your deployment tooling wants the other one.

Or from a package manager

winget install AkshayNikhare.RealtimeClipboard

In review. The 0.3.0 manifest is submitted and waiting on Microsoft's reviewers — people who do not work on this project — so there is a gap of days between a release and this command working. Until it merges, use the .msi above; it is the same file winget would fetch, and its SHA256 is pinned in that manifest.

There is deliberately no scoop line. A Scoop bucket is a repository somebody has to keep in step with every release, and one Windows channel that is genuinely maintained beats two that drift apart. The .msi above is the same build either way.

Check it worked

The app is a window around the same page the website serves, so most of what you see is the web app. Two things tell you the native half is running:

• A tray icon, near the clock — you may need to expand the hidden icons to see it. Double-click it to bring the window back, or right-click for the menu. Quit is in that menu, on purpose: an app that watches your clipboard has to have a visible way to stop it.
• The status bar reads T0 · watching the system clipboard, bottom right. That string is the whole difference between the desktop app and a browser tab. In a browser the same field reads T3 · auto-capture at best, and T1 · paste only at worst.

Left of it, the connection state reads Connected once the relay has answered. Connecting… that never settles is a network problem, not an install problem — see below.

Your first sync

1. In the app, note the key at the top, or type one of your own. The installed app makes ten-character keys; the website makes six, and either works on both.
2. On a second device — a phone browser will do — open the app and enter the same key.
3. Copy something on Windows. Do not switch to RealtimeClipboard: the point is that you do not have to. It appears on the other device.

If it did not appear, check the switch at the top of the window. On Clipboard — the default — everything you copy is shared. On App, nothing leaves the machine until you paste it in. App is worth knowing about: the app reads every copy you make while it runs, including passwords you copied for unrelated reasons. The guide that opens on first launch says so, and the same switch is in the tray menu as Share what I copy.

When it does not work

SmartScreen warns about the installer

Expected on a new publisher, and worth taking seriously in general rather than clicking through by habit. Check that you got the file from the official releases page and that the publisher matches. The warning goes away as the certificate accrues reputation, not because anything about the build changed.

It is a work machine

The app needs no administrator rights and installs no driver or service. It makes outbound connections on 443 to a single hostname, which is the shape IT departments allowlist. If yours blocks it, the browser version needs nothing at all — and if the browser version is blocked too, that is a policy decision and not something to work around.

Windows has its own “Sync across your devices”, and it is greyed out

That is a different feature belonging to Windows, not to this app, and its own set of reasons for being unavailable. That page is here. Nothing about it affects RealtimeClipboard, which does not use it.

Stuck on “Connecting…”

The app opens a WebSocket first and falls back to server-sent events plus POST when that is blocked, so a proxy that forbids upgrades still works — slower. If neither connects, the relay hostname is being blocked outright. You can point the app at your own relay under Settings → Relay; running one is one container.

Uninstalling

Settings → Apps → Installed apps → RealtimeClipboard → Uninstall, or winget uninstall AkshayNikhare.RealtimeClipboard if that is how it arrived.

There is nothing to clean up afterwards. No clipboard content is ever written to disk by either the app or the relay, so an uninstall leaves behind only your settings and clip history, which live in the browser storage of the app itself and go with it.

Ready to install: the download page. Every other platform: the installation guide. Something wrong or out of date here? Open an issue.