XPS is a Microsoft answer for PDF, it stands for XML Paper Specifications. Although it is not very popular right now, it might overthrow PDF some time in the future. However, Microsoft has been carelessly implementing the XPS Viewer which comes with Windows Vista installation. Basically, if you don't use Vista, you will need additional .NET Framework 3.0 and Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) version 6 or later to open this document. XPS viewer itself is actually an Internet Explorer plugin which allow you to open XPS file under IE.
The problem comes when it actually does not explicitly integrate IE to open XPS file but rather it integrates with the current default browser. Therefore, if you installed Firefox and set it as default browser, when you try to open XPS document, it will be transferred to Firefox. But because Firefox cannot recognise XPS file, it will open a download dialog which resulting the file cannot be opened.
There are two solutions for this problem. The first is by changing XPS file association directly to Internet Explorer. You can do this by going to Start > All Programs > Default Programs. Then click Associate a file type or protocol with a program. Finally, find .xps extesion and click Change program and select Internet Explorer in the program list. If you have trouble associating a file extension, your Vista might have file association bug. If so, see the solution here.
The second method is by downloading a free standalone XPS viewer which you can download from Microsoft's website.
Microsoft should be more careful if they want their XPS to be as popular as PDF. Because this bug is very crucial as it happened at the very basic level.
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