For SysAds: Removing "XPS Document Writer"

Last year, I wrote a Tech Tip explaining how to remove Microsoft Office Document Image Writer. (You can read that Tech Tip by clicking here.)

Since then, I've discovered that it may be best to also remove the Document Image Writer's equally-annoying younger brother: Microsoft XPS Document Writer.

XPS (XML Paper Specification) is Microsoft's latest alternative to PDF. Your organization may or may not be using it, so the first thing to do is find out if your users are. The odds are that they aren't: like it or not, PDF is here to stay for a while. Microsoft often tries to create alternate formats in an effort to increase market share (see: WMA audio files and WMV video files), but these proprietary formats are not always successful.

If none of your users create XPS files or use the XPS Document Writer, then you may want to consider removing Microsoft XPS Document Writer from all user profiles. It tends to cause the same issues as "Image Writer" when a user doesn't have any printers set up or has the wrong printer set as the default. (See my previous article linked above.)

To remove all XPS Document Image Writers from all user profiles at logon, simply add these 3 lines of code to your user login script (or create one for this if one doesn't exist):

c:

cd \windows\system32\

cscript prnmngr.vbs -d -p "Microsoft XPS Document
Writer"

You can delete or "rem out" this line of script once it's been run by all your users.