Question

Is there a reliable way to determine if the Microsoft XPS Document Writer is available and functional on the System via .Net?

Also, is the name of the XPS Writer the same on all Windows Distributions (eg. English, German (…))?

Is the XPS Writer definately available on all Windows Systems since Vista. Also on Starter Editions, all x86 and x64 Editions and also on Windows 8?

Answer 1

Take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa969772.aspx

I suspect you could use the snippet below to try and print the XPS, then if it doesn’t work, you probably do not have a printer.

            try
            {
                // Print the Xps file while providing XPS validation and progress notifications.
                PrintSystemJobInfo xpsPrintJob = defaultPrintQueue.AddJob(f.Name, nextFile, false);
            }
            catch (PrintJobException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("\n\t{0} could not be added to the print queue.", f.Name);
                if (e.InnerException.Message == "File contains corrupted data.")
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("\tIt is not a valid XPS file. Use the isXPS Conformance Tool to debug it.");
                }
                Console.WriteLine("\tContinuing with next XPS file.\n");
            }