While Microsoft’s Windows 11 update touches most bases on the Windows platform, there has been surprisingly little buzz around Microsoft Edge. However, Microsoft does have plans for its web browser on Windows 11, and indeed Windows 10. One such change will “Pickle Clipboard APIs”, which are being developed alongside Google.
This would allow Chromium browsers like Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome to have an improved clipboard experience. Users will be able to more efficiently copy and paste. More importantly, they will also be able to copy and paste more extensive and complicated file types across web browser and applications.
According to Windows Latest, current web applications and sites do not have complete access to the browser clipboard on Edge or Chrome. That’s because the browsers only support standard file formats like HTML, png, .txt, and jpg.
Chrome and Edge do not extend to other more specific formats such as non-web formats and proprietary formats. This is a question of limitations within the API, so Microsoft and Google are working on a new API to address this issue.
Pickle Clipboards
Known as Pickle Clipboard APIs, the new system will all apps to create file formats in a pickling format, provided developers implement the API. In basic terms, it means users will be able to copy and paste complete custom formats on Windows, Mac, and any other platform that has Edge or Chrome.
It is worth noting the OS clipboard handles the copy/paste and not the browser. This allows for developers to create their own custom formats that are more secure. It also means that Microsoft and Chrome can continue to use the current Async Clipboard API and build on top of it.
“These changes will be used in [Pickle Clipboard API project] to support custom format write operations,” Microsoft engineers says in documents for the API.
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