Welcome to MSDN Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

The Release Candidate of Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack (XPS Essentials Pack) is now available for download to all our customers. XPS Essentials Pack RC1 is supported for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 for both 32 bit and 64 bit machines.

The XPS Essentials Pack contains:

  1. XPS Viewer EP - A stand-alone viewer for XPS Documents.
  2. Microsoft XPS Document Writer (MXDW) - Ability to generate XPS Documents by using the print command.
  3. XPS Document metadata and thumbnail handlers - Extensions for inspecting and changing XPS Document properties in Windows Explorer.
  4. XPS Document rich preview provider - Ability to preview XPS Documents in Outlook 2007.
  5. XPS Document search and index filters - IFilter provider to enable indexing of XPS Documents for faster search.
  6. XPSDrv print driver components – Components to enable printing to XPS devices like XPS printers.

XPS Essentials Pack does not require the installation of .NET Framework 3.0. To have a complete XPS experience, XPS Essentials Pack does require MSXML 6.0.

The XPS Viewer EP is a light-weight application that provides a rich viewing experience for XPS Documents. There are many exciting features built into the viewer, such as inherent support of HD Photo images and cool thumbnail views. The Microsoft XPS Document Writer (MXDW) complements the XPS experience by providing the means to generate XPS Documents, just by printing from any application to the MXDW print driver. The Essentials Pack search and index filters enable faster searching of XPS Documents using  applications like Windows Desktop Search. The IPreview implementation enables previewing XPS Documents in Office 2007 without actually launching the viewer. For example, you can preview an XPS Document attached to an email in the reading pane of Outlook 2007 with a single click on the attachment. And finally, the Essentials Pack also provides the XPSDrv printer components that enable printing to the new generation of XPS-based devices like the XPS printers.

Your continued feedback on the experience in using XPS Essentials Pack RC1 helps us make this product better. Please provide your feedback to XPSinfo@microsoft.com

You can download the XPS Essentials Pack from: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/viewxps.mspx

Published Thursday, February 01, 2007 6:13 PM by xps

Comment Notification

If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here

Subscribe to this post's comments using RSS

Comments

Friday, February 02, 2007 2:47 AM by Wictor Wilen

# Release Candidate of Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack

Microsoft just released the first RC of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification (XPS) Essentials Pack. Download it here.

Friday, February 02, 2007 4:29 AM by OPC Diary

# Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack Version 1.0

Download details: XPS Essentials Pack Ve...

Friday, February 02, 2007 7:58 AM by ひろえむの日々是勉強

# Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack Version 1.0がリリースされました。

Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack Version 1.0がリリースされました。

Friday, February 02, 2007 7:58 AM by ひろえむの日々是勉強

# Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack Version 1.0がリリースされました。

Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack Version 1.0がリリースされました。

Sunday, February 04, 2007 1:20 PM by anonymus

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

Still getting this error: 'There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run a part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor.' Please help.....I need XPS.

Sunday, February 04, 2007 3:06 PM by Mahmood

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

Please restart your machine and install again. This happens because you try to install/uninstall while one of the XPS Essentials Pack components are running. When this happens, the MSI marks it for deletion after a restart. Once you restart your computer, the previous uninstall will finish then you can install the RC1. Hope this helps.

Sunday, February 04, 2007 6:54 PM by Bryan Fennell

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

Will the Essentials Pack be release to Vista? I actually prefer the standalone viewer.

Saturday, February 10, 2007 5:37 AM by Wolfgang

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

I've installed XPS Essentials Pack and the XPS example documents. To me all texts in the XPS viewer and in XPS documents look blurry. ClearType is disabled in Windows Display settings and Internet Explorer settings.

Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:08 AM by Native Developer

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

I can confirm the observation Wolfgang on February 10 made about blurry glyph runs with exact that settings on 1280x1024/96dpi. You made a very great display file format (i develop using your spec), but please enhance your users viewing experience by allowing them to decide self whether they do like or can better read anything either with or without any font smoothing / antialiasing technique! I think, the previous beta version did this and some drawings better!

Friday, February 23, 2007 9:34 AM by CSMR

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

Anti-aliasing does not seem to be working on the standalone viewer. (XP SP2)

Tuesday, March 06, 2007 9:14 PM by Robert

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

I am getting this error: 'There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run a part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor.' Now i have rebooted the computer many times and even uninstalled all the software and started again. I did have an issue with installing .Net 3 but it now installed cleanly. I am running windows xp sp2 with all the latest updates. What i really need is the installer to tell me something that will help me find what piece of software it is having issues with it so i can help it out. Any suggestions would be a great help. Thanks.

Saturday, March 10, 2007 4:30 PM by Chris G

# MDI conversion

Are there plans to provide a batch .MDI (Microsoft Document Imaging) to XPS converter in this pack or elsewhere?  Many of us have built large archives of .MDI documents and would like a simple way to convert them without having to print each to the .xps writer.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 5:50 AM by Per-Ola Robertsson

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

Why was the Windows 2000 support dropped between the beta 2 and the RC1 release? I need a Window 2000 XPS viewer.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007 10:49 AM by Ben Ryan

# Win2K Support?

Win2K support dropped? I know it's not supported anymore, but as local government in a rural area we can't influence what some of our customers are using - and would like to make XPS our one and only e-doc format. Save us from PDF hell - XPS view for Win2K?

Friday, March 23, 2007 8:53 AM by Bruno

# How to uninstall previous versions of XPS Viewer

Hi, I recently discovered XPS and i'm using the EP  version, but apparently I have two versions of the viewer installed...

the XPS Viewer and the XPS Viewer EP..

I would like to uninstall the XPS Viewer, how do I do that?

Thursday, April 12, 2007 5:03 PM by MT

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

Does XPS support "Page" &/or bookmark capabilities?

Saturday, April 14, 2007 9:51 PM by Bandit

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

Why does the XPS Viewer require something else to be installed? That's dumb. End users like simplicity - give them one simple thing to do. Include any other payload, let that payload installer determine whether bits need to be installed or not.

Get off your nerds hats, installation default shouldn't be more than 3 clicks - start, eula, go. Advanced users can take the longer custom route.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 2:24 AM by Florisz

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

I have the same question as 'Chris G' on march 10.

"Are there plans to provide a batch .MDI (Microsoft Document Imaging) to XPS converter in this pack or elsewhere?  Many of us have built large archives of .MDI documents and would like a simple way to convert them without having to print each to the .xps writer."

Friday, June 29, 2007 9:19 PM by Quentin Hudspeth

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

I was disheartened to find that while I can generate a pretty document from Word to XPS via your Document Writer, it's only a pretty document. I lose all the hyperlinks for Table of Contents, Table of Figures, the Index, or anything else, for that matter. Hell, I have a free PDF writer that does that. Surely XML can handle the hyperlinks, so why not be competitive? Am I just totally clueless?

Thursday, November 08, 2007 9:44 PM by Shane Hanson

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

More Microsoft monopilisation of the consumer markets...

MS is sooooo bad that I now use Ubuntu Linux and Open Office...

Excellent software, FREE and USA corporation free software...

Tuesday, December 04, 2007 3:32 PM by Herman Widjaja

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

Tips to disable XpsViewer Feature in Vista

1. Go to "Control Panel"

2. Click on "Programs"

3. Under "Program and Features", click on "Turn Windows features on or off"

4. In Windows Features dialog box, expand "Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0"

5. Uncheck "Xps Viewer"

6. Click OK

Friday, April 11, 2008 8:59 AM by RMHLee

# re: RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

Congratulations...I have a client who has who has whole-heartedly deployed XPS across 5000 desktops. Unfortunately, they’ve taken away MDI which we’ve been using to capture printed output for later analysis offsite. Since this analysis is offsite and not on Windows systems, XPS viewers are needed for Linux & MAC…so…?  Uh…what about a recommendation for appropriate viewers?

Leave a Comment

(required) 
required 
(required) 
 
Page view tracker