Snippet from a custom SFML extension for direct clipboard access.

Win32 Clipboard access

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
ClipboardImpl& ClipboardImpl::operator >> (sf::String& data)
{
	data = "";

	if (!OpenClipboard(NULL))
		return *this;

	if (IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_UNICODETEXT))
	{
		HANDLE hData = GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT);
		Uint16 *pStart = static_cast<Uint16*>(GlobalLock(hData));
		Uint16 *pEnd = pStart;
		for (; *pEnd; ++pEnd);
		data = String::fromUtf16(pStart, pEnd);
		GlobalUnlock(hData);
	}

	CloseClipboard();
	return *this;
}