Why does Windows no longer open my XPS file?

Starting with Windows 10 version 1803 the XPS Viewer stopped being installed by default; it became an optional feature (Settings → Apps → Optional features → XPS Viewer). On a computer without it, a double-click on an .xps or .oxps finds no program. This tool opens the file in the browser and turns it into a PDF that any device reads.

What is the difference between .xps and .oxps?

.oxps is OpenXPS, the standardized version (ECMA-388) that the Microsoft XPS Document Writer saves from Windows 8 on. The content is the same — pages, fonts, images — but the namespaces differ, and the old XPS Viewer on Windows 7 refuses .oxps. Both are read here.

Will the text in the PDF be searchable?

Yes, when the XPS holds text: the fonts embedded in the XPS go into the PDF with the same glyph numbers, and a Unicode map is written next to them, so search, selection and copying work. A scan printed to XPS holds only an image of the page — its PDF has no text either.

Are links and the table of contents kept?

Hyperlinks on the pages stay clickable in the PDF, and links to other pages of the same document lead to them. If the XPS carries a document structure (Word saves headings into it), it becomes the PDF's bookmarks and the Contents list next to the pages.

What do the gray boxes in place of pictures mean?

The picture is in JPEG XR (HD Photo), a format some .NET programs write into XPS and that browsers cannot decode, or it is missing from a damaged file. JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF and BMP pictures are shown; the summary under the pages lists which pages have the gray boxes.

The file was cut short while downloading. Can anything be saved?

Often most of it. An XPS is a ZIP package whose table of contents sits at the very end, so a cut-off file loses exactly that table. The pages are then found by the headers of the entries themselves; pages that did not make it are shown as numbered gaps, and the PDF is assembled from the rest.

XPS to PDF converter and XPS file viewer

An online tool for opening XPS and OpenXPS (.oxps) documents — the files written by the Microsoft XPS Document Writer, by "Save as XPS" in Office and by .NET programs — without the XPS Viewer that Windows no longer installs. Pages appear as they were printed, the text can be searched and copied, and the document converts to a PDF that keeps its text as text.

How to use it

3 steps

Open the XPS document

Drop a .xps or .oxps file into the box. The package is recognized by its content, so a file renamed to .zip or saved without an extension opens too.

Read and search it

Scroll the pages, zoom in, find a word across the whole document, select a passage and copy it.

Save it as PDF

«Download PDF» writes a vector PDF with the same fonts and searchable text; a page or all pages can also be saved as PNG, the text as TXT.

Open an .xps or .oxps document in your browser and save it as a PDF

Drop a file here

XPS and OpenXPS documents (.xps, .oxps) ·

What is inside an XPS file

XPS is Microsoft's fixed-page format: a ZIP package of XAML pages, embedded and obfuscated fonts, images and resource dictionaries. The XPS Document Writer printer, Office and .NET applications produce it, and since Windows 10 version 1803 the XPS Viewer that opened it is no longer installed by default — so .xps and .oxps files land with people who have nothing to open them with. Here the package is read as the specification describes it, the page is drawn from its paths, glyph runs and brushes, and the same drawing is written into the PDF.

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Published 11 Nov 2026 Updated 12 Nov 2026 Author: The Supreme