Is it me or does the Microsoft XPS driver with the WSD port just suck?

[Samanator]

Lately it seems that the XPS drive that seems to be the resident print drive on Microsoft 10 and 11 just doesn’t work so well on large MFPs. And lately I seem to be getting more and more calls about printing problems only to find out the user installed ‘the print driver myself’ or ‘that’s how it showed up on my PC’. I get out to the customer or remote in only to find that the user is using the Microsoft (POS, at least to me) XPS printer driver that uses the (POS, at least to me) WSD port.

I always delete the POS XPS driver then install the recommended manufacturer print driver.


So, I have to ask, is it just me or does the XPs driver with the WSD port just suck or am I missing something?

[slimslob]

Re: Is it me or does the Microsoft XPS driver with the WSD port just suck?

The WSD (Web Services For Devices) actually is not a port but instead is a protocol that replaces TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). IMHO it sucks a big one, especially on a LAN that has a lot of traffic. I have seen it take 30 minutes or more to print something as small as a simple one page PDF.

The XPS driver had its day, in Windows XP working with GDI printers.

[tsbservice]

Re: Is it me or does the Microsoft XPS driver with the WSD port just suck?

Large MFPs and WSD/XPS are big No-no.
Maybe for smaller A4 USB home desktop printers they are OK but IMHO no MFP with LAN port should be using them.
Typically we add them as tcp/ip device on ip port then point to the OEM Driver seems to work good enough for the last 2 decades.

[rthonpm]

Re: Is it me or does the Microsoft XPS driver with the WSD port just suck?

Large MFPs and WSD/XPS are big No-no.
Maybe for smaller A4 USB home desktop printers they are OK but IMHO no MFP with LAN port should be using them.
Typically we add them as tcp/ip device on ip port then point to the OEM Driver seems to work good enough for the last 2 decades.

Except that legacy printer drivers are going to be deprecated in Windows for Mopria. It's an mDNS solution like Bonjour or Apple Talk for Macs.

In my limited testing so far, Mopria has been much more stable especially as it pulls information directly from the MFP instead of trying to be a middle man like WSD.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[SC899]

Re: Is it me or does the Microsoft XPS driver with the WSD port just suck?

It's always wise to disable all the unnecessary protocols on a multifunction device. On Ricoh devices I disable everything except LPD and DIPRINT (Direct IP Printing). The rest all off, unless AirPrint needs to be used, IPP has to be enabled for that.

[ThisPete]

WSD & XPS both suck.

I always use TCP/IP with the correct driver, but use DHCP on the MFP and print to the host name.. it gives resilience against router changes in smaller businesses.

[slimslob]

WSD & XPS both suck.

I always use TCP/IP with the correct driver, but use DHCP on the MFP and print to the host name.. it gives resilience against router changes in smaller businesses.

I had a vascular, leg and vein specialist who liked to change his ISP every few months.

[ThisPete]

I had a vascular, leg and vein specialist who liked to change his ISP every few months.

Perfect scenario for printing via/to the host name slimslob.. 👍

[slimslob]

Perfect scenario for printing via/to the host name slimslob.. 👍

I know.

[Samanator]

Over the last couple of years I have used printing to host name with a dynamic address in the machine instead of TCP/IP address at all my small clients. Usually cuts out problems when they choose to change internet providers.

[ihatefinishers13]

Over the last couple of years I have used printing to host name with a dynamic address in the machine instead of TCP/IP address at all my small clients. Usually cuts out problems when they choose to change internet providers.

A few weeks ago, I had a small family doctor that was set up that way (the drivers did it by default on their network), and when I had the machine off for an hour to rebuilt some units, the machine came back up and the customer couldn't print(they tried on their 4 office PC's, and I tried on 2 others). Hostname didn't change, but I had to resort to changing the port to IP on all of their 12 PC's. It was whacky, but idk how a network issue could show up like that so suddenly while I was there.

[slimslob]

I had to resort to changing the port to IP on all of their 12 PC's. It was whacky, but idk how a network issue could show up like that so suddenly while I was there.

What was the port set to before?

[ihatefinishers13]

What was the port set to before?

It was set for the exact hostname that the machine had been set to for 3 years.

[slimslob]

the only difference between your having the MFP off for an hour and the building losing power for an hour is that only the MFP was OFF and had to get a new IP address. I have a feeling that if you cycled power on one of the PC, it would have found the MFP by hostname during initialization of its network settings. saved the new IP address to registry and functioned as it did initially.

[rthonpm]

A few weeks ago, I had a small family doctor that was set up that way (the drivers did it by default on their network), and when I had the machine off for an hour to rebuilt some units, the machine came back up and the customer couldn't print(they tried on their 4 office PC's, and I tried on 2 others). Hostname didn't change, but I had to resort to changing the port to IP on all of their 12 PC's. It was whacky, but idk how a network issue could show up like that so suddenly while I was there.

It's always DNS...