How to Open .xps and .oxps Files (Windows 11 Has No Viewer by Default)
An .xps file is a finished document laid out for print, Microsoft's answer to PDF from the Windows Vista era. .oxps is the same idea in the later standardised form. Windows still understands both, but since 2018 the viewer has to be installed by hand.
Why it will not open
- The viewer is missing. Since Windows 10 version 1803 (2018), new PCs and clean installations — including every Windows 11 — come without XPS Viewer; a PC upgraded from an older Windows keeps it. Double-clicking an .xps on a machine without it opens the "how do you want to open this file" dialog instead of the document.
- Almost nothing else opens it. PDF readers, Word and browsers do not read XPS. Outside Microsoft's own viewer, support is limited to a few third-party readers (Sumatra PDF on Windows, Evince and Okular on Linux).
- .oxps and .xps are not interchangeable. .oxps (OpenXPS) is the version Windows 8 and later produce; the original Windows 7 viewer cannot open it, and older converters choke on it.
How to open it
Windows 10 / 11: install XPS Viewer as an optional feature
- 1 Press Win+R, type ms-settings:optionalfeatures and press Enter. This opens Optional features directly; in Settings it has moved between "System" and "Apps" across Windows 10 and 11 updates, so the direct command is the reliable route. Choose "Add a feature" / "View features".
- 2 Search for "XPS Viewer", tick it and install. It is a small download and appears in the Start menu afterwards.
- 3 Double-click the .xps or .oxps file. If it still opens the wrong app, right-click → Open with → XPS Viewer.
- 4 On a managed work PC, adding optional features needs administrator rights. If that is blocked, use one of the routes below.
Without admin rights: a portable reader
- 1 Sumatra PDF (free, open source) opens .xps and .oxps alongside PDF, and has a portable version that runs without installing.
- 2 Open the file in it and, if you need something shareable, print to PDF with "Microsoft Print to PDF".
Turn it into a PDF so it opens everywhere
- 1 On any Windows PC that has XPS Viewer, open the file and print it to "Microsoft Print to PDF".
- 2 The PDF opens on Macs, phones and in any browser. This is the easiest way to help someone who received an .xps and cannot open it.
Where these files come from
Mostly from the "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" virtual printer, which comes pre-installed on Windows (it may be disabled, but it is there). Someone meant to save a PDF and picked the wrong printer. Asking the sender to reprint to "Microsoft Print to PDF" solves it for good.
On Linux and macOS
Linux is the one place XPS is well supported: Evince (GNOME's document viewer) and Okular (KDE) open .xps and .oxps through libgxps, and the xpstopdf command from libgxps-utils converts to PDF offline. macOS has no built-in viewer; a few third-party apps exist, but the dependable route is to convert to PDF on a Windows or Linux machine, or ask the sender for a PDF.