Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) are set of services that allow applications written in JScript, VBScript, and Microsoft development tools to build Windows-native

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

-based applications. It supports XML 1.0, DOM, SAX, an

XSLT XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a language originally designed for transforming XML documents into other XML documents, or other formats such as HTML for web pages, plain text, or XSL Formatting Objects. These formats c ...

1.0 processor,

XML schema An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself. These constrai ...

support including

XSD XSD (XML Schema Definition), a recommendation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), specifies how to formally describe the elements in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document. It can be used by programmers to verify each piece of item cont ...

and XDR, as well as other XML-related technologies.

Overview

All MSXML products are similar in that they are exposed programmatically as OLE Automation (a subset of COM) components. Developers can program against MSXML components from C, C++ or from Active Scripting languages such as JScript and VBScript. Managed .NET Interop with MSXML COM components is not supported nor recommended. As with all COM components, an MSXML object is programmatically instantiated by CLSID or ProgID. Each version of MSXML exposes its own set of CLSID's and ProgIDs. For example, to create an MSXML 6.0 DOMDocument object, which exposes the IXmlDomDocument, IXmlDomDocument2, and IXmlDomDocument3 COM interfaces, the ProgID "MSXML2.DOMDocument.6.0" must be used. MSXML also supports version-independent ProgIDs. Version-independent ProgIDs do not have a version number associated with them. For example, "Microsoft.XMLHTTP". These ProgIDs were first introduced in MSXML 1.0, however are currently mapped to MSXML 3.0 objects and the msxml3.dll. Different versions of MSXML support slightly different sets of functionality. For example, while MSXML 3.0 supports only XDR schemas, it does not support XSD schemas. MSXML 4.0, MSXML 5.0, and MSXML 6.0 support XSD schemas. However, MSXML 6.0 does not support XDR schemas. Support for XML Digital Signatures is provided only by MSXML 5.0. For new XML-related software development, Microsoft recommends using MSXML 6.0 or its lightweight cousin, ''XmlLite'', for

native code In computer programming, machine code is computer program, computer code consisting of machine language instruction set architecture, instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). For conventional binary ...

-only projects.

Versions

MSXML is a collection of distinct products, released and supported by Microsoft. The product versions can be enumerated as follows:

Current

* MSXML 6.0 MSXML6 is the latest MSXML product from Microsoft, and (along with MSXML3) is shipped with Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005, .NET Framework 3.0, as well as Windows XP Service Pack 3,

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

and every subsequent versions of Windows up to

Windows 11 Windows 11 is a version of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released on October 5, 2021, as the successor to Windows 10 (2015). It is available as a free upgrade for devices running Windows 10 that meet the #System requirements, Windo ...

. It also has support for native 64-bit environments. It is an upgrade but not replacement for versions 3 and 4 as they still provide legacy features not supported in version 6. Version 6, 4, and 3 may all be installed and running concurrently. MSXML 6 is not supported on

Windows 9x Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a line of discontinued Microsoft Windows operating systems released from 1995 to 2000 and supported until 2006, which were based on the kernel introduced in Windows 95 and modified in succeeding version ...

. Windows XP SP3 includes MSXML 6.0 SP2. * MSXML 3.0 MSXML3 is a current MSXML product, represented by msxml3.dll. MSXML 3.0 SP2 first shipped with

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a deprecation, retired series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were u ...

6.0 and MDAC 2.7. Windows XP SP2 includes MSXML 3.0 SP5 as part of MDAC 2.81. Windows 2000 SP4 also ships with MSXML 3.0. By default, Internet Explorer version 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0 use MSXML 3 to parse XML documents loaded in a window. MSXML 3.0 SP7 is the last supported version for

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

. Windows XP SP3 includes MSXML 3.0 SP9.

also includes MSXML 3.0 (SP10).

Obsolete

* MSXML 5.0 MSXML5 was a binary developed specifically for Microsoft Office. It originally shipped with Office 2003 and also ships with Office 2007. Microsoft has not released documentation for this version because Microsoft considers MSXML 5 an internal/integrated component of Office 2003. MSXML 5 is not included in Office 2010.Office 2010: What's removed: Office 2010 Resource Kit documentation on TechNet
/ref> * MSXML 4.0 MSXML4 was shipped as an independent, downloadable SDK targeted at

independent software vendor An independent software vendor (ISV), also known as a software publisher, is an organization specializing in making and selling software, in contrast to computer hardware, designed for mass or niche markets. This is in contrast to in-house softwa ...

s and third parties. It is an upgrade for, but not a replacement to MSXML3 as version 3 still provides legacy features. There is no 64-bit version offered, although the 32-bit version was supported for 32-bit processes on 64-bit operating systems. Versions 4 and 3 may be run concurrently. MSXML 4.0 SP3 is the most recent version released in March 2009, SP2 support expired in April 2010, and MSXML 4.0 SP3 expired in April 2014. * MSXML 2.6 This is an early version of MSXML, and is represented by msxml2.dll. This product is no longer supported by Microsoft, and the CLSIDs and ProgIDs it exposes have been subsumed by MSXML 3.0. MSXML 2.6 shipped with

Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server is a proprietary relational database management system developed by Microsoft using Structured Query Language (SQL, often pronounced "sequel"). As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of ...

2000 and MDAC 2.6. The last version for all platforms was released a
KB887606
* MSXML 2.5 This is an early version of MSXML, and is represented by msxml.dll. This version is also no longer supported by Microsoft, and the CLSIDs and ProgIDs it exposes have been subsumed by MSXML 3.0. MSXML 2.5 shipped with

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...

as part of

5.01 and MDAC 2.5. * MSXML 2.0a This version shipped with Internet Explorer 5.0. No longer supported. * MSXML 1.0 This version shipped with Internet Explorer 4.0. No longer supported.

References

External links