Microsoft Windows 2000 API SuperBible

Windows Management of Clipboard Data

Windows manages the contents of the clipboard and the clipboard formats. Not only does Windows keep the data for each format separate so that placing data in one format does not affect data written in another format, but Windows also controls the deletion of the data placed in the clipboard. The data stored in the clipboard for a given format must be deleted when new data is stored in the format or when EmptyClipboard is called to delete the entire contents of the clipboard.

Windows deletes clipboard data elements by calling a specific delete function; which function it calls depends on the type of data the clipboard format stores. For Graphics Device Interface (GDI) objects, Windows uses DeleteObject to delete ...