hey everyone,
Thanks for checking out my post. I wanted to share the story behind why I built PasteClean.
The idea came from a simple, recurring annoyance: sharing ridiculously long and messy URLs. Whether it was an Amazon link that was five lines long or a news article filled with utm and fbclid trackers from social media, it felt cluttered and invasive. I wanted a seamless way to clean any link I copied, without having to think about it.
So, I built PasteClean. It's a simple, Windows utility that runs quietly in the background and automatically cleans any URL you copy to your clipboard, making them short, clean, and privacy-friendly.
Here are some of the core features I've built in:
🚀 Automatic Clipboard Cleaning: Runs in the system tray and instantly sanitizes URLs the moment you press Ctrl+C. No extra steps needed.
🧹 Powerful Rule Engine: By default, it strips all common tracking parameters (like utm_, fbclid, gclid, etc.).
📦 Amazon Link Canonicalization: Automatically converts messy Amazon product URLs into the clean and permanent domain/dp/ASIN format.
🛡️ VirusTotal Security Integration: You can optionally add your VirusTotal API key to have the app automatically check if a cleaned link is safe before you use it.
⚙️ Fully Customizable: Features a robust Ignore List so you can prevent cleaning on specific domains or protect certain parameters (like your own affiliate tags).
Batch Processing: The UI allows you to paste and clean a whole list of URLs at once.
The project is built with [mention your tech stack here, e.g., C# and WPF] and I had a great time tackling some of the technical challenges, which I wrote about in more detail here.
It's completely free.
🔽 Direct Download: [https://github.com/iiXotic/pasteclean-updates]
I'm actively developing this and would genuinely love to get your feedback. What's one feature you think would be a great addition?
Thanks for taking a look!
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