The XPS Viewer stopped being installed by default in Windows 10 version 1803. It is still there as an optional feature, and one line of DISM adds it back.
Nothing outside Windows opens XPS at all. If the file has to go to anyone else, convert it and send a PDF instead.
Double-click an .xps on a current Windows machine and nothing happens. The format is Microsoft's own, the file was almost certainly made on Windows, and Windows no longer reads it. That is not a fault at your end.
Microsoft removed its own viewer
XPS shipped with Windows Vista in 2006, aimed squarely at PDF, and came with a viewer built into every copy of Windows from then on. Adoption never arrived. Starting with Windows 10 version 1803 the viewer stopped being part of the default install, and Windows 11 followed the same policy. Microsoft's answer on the missing viewer confirms it is deliberate rather than a bug.
The half of the feature that creates these files stayed exactly where it was. Microsoft XPS Document Writer is still installed as a printer on every Windows machine, so a current copy of Windows will cheerfully produce a document it cannot open.
Getting the viewer back
It is an optional feature rather than a download, so nothing needs to come from outside Microsoft.
Through Settings
Open Settings, then System, then Optional features. Choose Add an optional feature, search for XPS Viewer, tick it and install. It takes under a minute.
Or one command
In an elevated terminal: DISM /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:XPS.Viewer~~~~0.0.1.0. Faster, and the route that works when the Settings list is being unhelpful.
Then open the file
Double-clicking should work once it is installed. If Windows still refuses to associate the extension, press Windows and R and run xpsrchvw to launch the viewer directly.
One situation defeats all of this. On a machine managed by an IT department and pointed at an internal update server, optional features often fail to install because the component files are fetched from Windows Update rather than held locally. You get an error code and no feature. That is the point to stop fighting it and convert the file instead.
An .xps and an .oxps are not the same file
Windows 8 changed the default output to OpenXPS, which carries the extension .oxps and is the version standardised as ECMA-388. The two formats are close relatives and they are not interchangeable.
The Windows 8 and later viewer
- Reads .xps, the original Microsoft format
- Reads .oxps, the standardised version
- Writes .oxps by default
- Available as an optional feature on Windows 10 and 11
The Windows 7 viewer
- Reads .xps only
- Refuses .oxps outright
- No update ever added it
- Still in the wild on machines that never moved on
This is why a file opens on one Windows machine and fails on another that looks identical. Before assuming a download was corrupted, check which of the two extensions you actually have. Renaming .oxps to .xps does not help, because the contents differ rather than the label.
What is actually in the file
An XPS document is a zip full of XML parts, built the same way a .docx is. Microsoft's XPS documentation describes the arrangement: one part per page holding the geometry, the text with its position on the page, and the fonts needed to draw it.
That is the same job a PDF does. Both describe a finished page rather than instructions for rebuilding one, which is what makes converting between them a translation rather than a reconstruction. Text stays text, selectable and searchable, instead of becoming a picture of text.
One wrinkle sits in the way: XPS scrambles its embedded fonts, so a converter that does not know to unscramble them produces a page of empty boxes where the words should be. It is a solved problem, and it is worth knowing about because it is the usual reason a converted XPS comes out unreadable.
When converting is simply the shorter route
Installing the viewer is the right answer when the file is for you and you have a handful of them. It stops being the right answer the moment anyone else is involved.
Nothing outside Windows opens XPS. No reader on macOS, nothing built into iOS or Android, no browser. Sending an XPS to a colleague, a client or a council office means sending a file they cannot read, and they are unlikely to work out why. Since both formats describe finished pages with the fonts included, converting to PDF gives up nothing.
Turn an XPS or OXPS into a PDF
Text stays as text rather than a picture, the fonts are unscrambled, and nothing is uploaded.
Common questions
Viewers, extensions and files Windows will not read.
01Why can I not open an XPS file on Windows 11?
The XPS Viewer stopped being part of the default install with Windows 10 version 1803, and Windows 11 kept that decision. It is still available as an optional feature.
02How do I install the XPS Viewer?
Settings, then System, then Optional features, then Add an optional feature, and search for XPS Viewer. Where that list will not cooperate, one DISM command adds the same capability.
03What is the difference between .xps and .oxps?
.oxps is the standardised OpenXPS version that Windows 8 made the default output. The Windows 7 viewer cannot read it, which is why the same file works on one machine and not another.
04Is XPS the same thing as PDF?
Same idea from a different vendor. Both store finished pages with the fonts embedded, which is why converting between them keeps the text selectable instead of flattening it.
05Can a Mac open an XPS file?
Not on its own. There is no Apple reader for the format and no browser handles it, so converting is the practical answer.
06Why does Windows still create XPS files?
The Microsoft XPS Document Writer is still installed as a printer, sitting next to Microsoft Print to PDF in the list. Picking the wrong one is how most XPS files come into existence.