The clipboard is a software facility used for short-term data storage and/or data transfer between documents or applications, via copy and paste operations. It is most commonly a part of a GUI environment and is usually implemented as an anonymous, temporary data buffer, sometimes called the paste buffer, that can be accessed from most or all programs within the environment via defined programming interfaces.

This is a basic example of using the .Net frameworks builtin Clipboard object to copy and paste various data type's from your application. 

Code:

Imports System.IO

Public Class frmMain

    Private Sub btnGetImage_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnGetImage.Click

        Dim a As String = Nothing
        Dim b As Collection = New Collection

        Try

            If Clipboard.ContainsImage Then
                pic.Image = Clipboard.GetImage
                Exit Sub

            End If

            If Clipboard.GetFileDropList.Count > 0 Then
                For Each a In My.Computer.Clipboard.GetFileDropList
                    b.Add(a)
                Next
            Else

                MessageBox.Show("There does not appear to be any image available to get from the Clipboards FileDropList.", " No Image", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
                Exit Sub
            End If


            If b.Count > 0 Then
                a = LCase(b.Item(1).ToString)
            Else
                MessageBox.Show("There are not any items in the clipboard.", " Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
                Exit Sub
            End If


            If a.EndsWith(".bmp") Then
                pic.Image = Image.FromFile(a.ToString)
            ElseIf a.EndsWith(".gif") Then
                pic.Image = Image.FromFile(a.ToString)
            ElseIf a.EndsWith(".jpg") Then
                pic.Image = Image.FromFile(a.ToString)
            Else


                MessageBox.Show("The clipboard does not contain either a Bitmap, Gif, or JPeg image to paste from!", " No Image to Paste", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
                Exit Sub
            End If

        Catch exc As Exception
            MessageBox.Show(exc.Message, " Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
        End Try
    End Sub

    Private Sub btnGetItems_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnGetItems.Click

        Dim item As String = Nothing

        Try
            If Clipboard.ContainsFileDropList <> 0 Then
                For Each item In Clipboard.GetFileDropList
                    lstFileDropItems.Items.Add(item)
                Next
            Else
                MessageBox.Show("There does not appear to be a FileDropList with any items in it!", " No FileDropList", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
                Exit Sub
            End If

        Catch exc As Exception
            MessageBox.Show(exc.Message, " Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
        End Try
    End Sub

    Private Sub btnSetText_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSetText.Click

        Try
            If Not txtText.Text = "" Then
                My.Computer.Clipboard.SetText(txtText.Text)
            Else
                My.Computer.Clipboard.SetText("This is just a test!")
            End If

        Catch exc As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(exc.Message, " Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub btnGetText_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnGetText.Click
        Try
            If My.Computer.Clipboard.ContainsText Then

                txtText.Text = My.Computer.Clipboard.GetText.ToString

            Else
                MessageBox.Show("The clipboard does not contain any text to paste to the textbox control!", " No TEXT in Clipboard", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)

            End If

        Catch exc As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(exc.Message, " Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub btnLoadInfo_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnLoadInfo.Click
        Try

            lblContainsAudio.Text = "Contains Audio: " & My.Computer.Clipboard.ContainsAudio.ToString
            lblFileDropList.Text = "Contains Drop List: " & My.Computer.Clipboard.ContainsFileDropList.ToString
            lblContainsImage.Text = "Contains Image: " & My.Computer.Clipboard.ContainsImage.ToString
            lblContainsText.Text = "Contains Text: " & My.Computer.Clipboard.ContainsText.ToString

        Catch exc As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(exc.Message, " Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub btnClear_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnClear.Click

        Try

            DialogResult = _
                MessageBox.Show("Are you sure you want to clear?", _
                    " Clear the clipboard?", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, _
                        MessageBoxIcon.None)

            If DialogResult = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Yes Then
                My.Computer.Clipboard.Clear()

            End If

        Catch exc As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(exc.Message, " Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub btnSetSelectImage_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSetSelectImage.Click

        Try
            Dim openDLG As OpenFileDialog = New OpenFileDialog
            openDLG.Filter = "Image Files (*.bmp, *.gif, *.jpg)|*.bmp;*.gif;*.jpg"
            DialogResult = openDLG.ShowDialog
            If DialogResult = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
                Clipboard.Clear()
                Clipboard.SetImage(Image.FromFile(openDLG.FileName))
                If Clipboard.ContainsImage Then
                    MessageBox.Show("The image should now be pasted in the clipboard.", " Image Successfully Pasted!", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
                Else
                    MessageBox.Show("The image does not appear to have been successfully pasted to the clipboard!", " Possible Problem", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
                End If
            End If

        Catch exc As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(exc.Message, " Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

        End Try

    End Sub
End Class