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

**Samanator** · 4 Weeks Ago

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** · 4 Weeks Ago

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** · 4 Weeks Ago

Originally Posted by 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.

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?

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** · 4 Weeks Ago

Originally Posted by tsbservice

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** · 4 Weeks Ago

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.