Friday 12 April 2013

What is an XPS File and How to Open .XPS File extension?

 





Microsoft is known not only for Windows operating system but also for development of extensions which not many of the people are familiar with. Microsoft never tends to stop developing, releasing programs and extensions like DOCX file format, forcing people to download Microsoft 2007, or find a alternative way to open those files!

In this article, we will look at Microsoft extension, named XPS, and we’ll learn more about XPS extension, which is an alternative for PDF format.
 
What is XPS File Extension?

XPS is XML Paper Specification which is used in Windows Printing machine and doesn’t support non Microsoft platforms.
Now the problem is “How to open XPS files on your computer ?” If you are on the Windows Vista platform then there is no need to download any plugin or software to open XPS files, double click on the saved XPS file to view the content! This is because both the .NET framework and XPS file viewer is pre-installed on Windows Vista.

Convert XPS File to PDF Format.

If you are downloading any Windows  user Manual or Ebook guide then you will find files in XPS and PDF format. Though you can convert xps to pdf files and open them in your PDF viewer but another alternative to open & view XPS files are suggested here (For other platform such as Windows XP or Windows server 2003).


Ways to open XPS files :

There are a couple of easy-to-do ways to open and edit XML Paper Specification format files on your Windows-only machine. The way I’d recommend is to use addons which are freely available for both Windows and Mac OS X users.

So, if you want to open files ending with the .XPS extension, here are the most preferable way to do so:
  • Install Microsoft Office Additional Addin 
Microsoft office comes with an additional option to install the addin to deal with XPS and PDF file extension.Users having Office 2007 can use below link to download the addin.


After Downloading completes, install it and you will be able to open XPS file in Office itself..
  • Open XPS File in Firefox browser

If you are not using Internet explorer for some reason and want to open .XPS on Firefox then download this IE tab extension (might not work on Firefox latest versions).
Restart the Firefox browser, configure the settings and you are ready to open, read XPS format file without sweating bullets.
  • Viewing XPS Files on Windows XP
Microsoft provides free XPS reader which is 2.8mb and can be downloaded from here but make sure you have .NET framework installed on your PC! If not you will be asked to download the missing .Net framework.
  • Open XPS File in Internet Explorer
After opening Internet explorer, click on File, then Open and Choose your .XPS file. Note that you will be asked to open in a new tab to view the file. So, in simple words, yes, you can also set Internet Explorer as the default program to read XPS file!

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