How to open an .mpp file without Microsoft Project

What an .mpp file is, and why it will not open

An .mpp file is a project plan saved by Microsoft Project, the desktop planning program: tasks, dates, links between tasks, resources and costs. The people who receive a plan often do not have Project themselves.

Microsoft's support page View project information without Project says plainly that Project has no viewer program for a computer without Project. Its advice is for the person who made the plan to share it in another form, such as a PDF, a picture of the plan or a copy pasted into another Office program.

Option 1: ask the sender for a PDF or an XML copy

This costs you nothing and needs no software. A PDF is for reading and printing. An XML copy is for opening in another program.

PDF. Microsoft's page Save or convert to PDF or XPS in Project desktop gives these steps, which you can pass on:

1. Pick the view to share, for example the Gantt chart. Microsoft says the print settings (dates, orientation, paper size and Page Setup) also change how the PDF looks.
2. Choose File, Export, Create PDF/XPS document, then Create PDF/XPS.
3. Type a file name, choose PDF in the Save as type list and select OK.
4. Set the options in the Document Export Options box, such as the range to publish, and select OK.

A PDF opens on any computer, tablet or phone and prints as the sender laid it out. But it is a snapshot: you cannot filter it, sort it or click a task for its details, and every update needs another PDF. Microsoft also notes that Project does not support every PDF formatting feature.

XML. Project can save a whole plan as XML, a format Microsoft describes as a way to exchange project data between Project and other programs (file formats supported by Project desktop). The sender chooses File, Save As, a folder and a file name, then XML in the Save as type list (Save a project file in Project desktop). Microsoft's export page adds that XML always holds the entire project, and that fields with no value are left out. ProjectLibre and Ganttwright, below, both open XML files.

Option 2: ProjectLibre (free, open source)

ProjectLibre Desktop is a free, open-source planning program for Windows, macOS and Linux. Its site says it opens Microsoft Project files, and its 1.9.8 release notes say it opens .mpp files directly. Its documentation also mentions opening XML files.

1. Download ProjectLibre Desktop from its website and install it.
2. Start it, choose to open an existing project and pick the .mpp file.
3. If you change anything, save it under another name, so the plan you were sent stays as it was.

Good when you want to keep planning, as it is a full planning program you can edit with. If you only need to read a plan, that is more to install and learn. It reads .mpp files with its own code, so check the dates that matter against the sender's PDF if you have one.

Option 3: Ganttwright ($16.99)

Ganttwright is a Windows app from Karelia Labs for reading plans you were sent. It opens .mpp files saved by Project 98, 2000–2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 (the versions we tested), as well as MPX files, Project XML files and Primavera XER exports. It only reads: it never changes the plan. It works without an internet connection, needs no account and sends nothing anywhere. It costs $16.99 in the Microsoft Store: Get it from Microsoft Store.

• The Gantt chart: the task table and the timeline side by side, with summary tasks you can expand and collapse, milestones, dependency arrows with lags, progress, baseline bars, the critical path in red, and lines for today and the plan's status date. The timescale runs from days to quarters, and scrolling stays smooth with large plans (checked with a generated Project XML plan of 5,000 tasks).
• Task details: click a task to see its dates, progress, baseline, slack, predecessors, successors, resources and notes.
• Find and filter: find tasks by name, ID, WBS, resource or note; show only critical, late or incomplete tasks, milestones, one resource's tasks or a date range.
• What's late: tasks that should have started or finished by the status date, today or a day you pick, and tasks with less progress than the time gone by, each with the reason.
• Compare two versions: tasks whose dates, duration, progress or name changed, and tasks added or removed, for when the sender mails an updated plan.
• Print and export: a PDF of the Gantt chart over as many pages as needed, with the title, column headings, timescale and task names repeated on every page, or fitted to the page width (A3, A4, Letter, Legal or Tabloid); the same pages on any printer; a PNG picture of the whole chart; and the task and resource tables as an Excel workbook or CSV files.

1. Install Ganttwright from the Microsoft Store. Try a sample shows it with a sample plan first.
2. Open your .mpp file and use the filters, What's late or Compare.
3. Save the chart as PDF or PNG, print it, or export the tables to Excel.

It needs Windows 10 version 2004 or later, or Windows 11, 64-bit, and about 420 MB of disk space. Saving as PDF uses the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime, which is included in Windows 11 and most Windows 10 PCs. Microsoft Project is not needed.

Option 4: online viewers

Some websites show .mpp files in the browser. To use them you upload the plan, so think twice with plans that hold costs, names or client details.

Which option fits

What to expect from Ganttwright

• It draws its own Gantt layout. The views, tables, filters, groups, bar styles and formatting saved in the file are not shown, so the chart will not look exactly like the sender's screen. The dates in the table are the file's own values.
• Custom fields, the gaps in split tasks, day-by-day work and cost, and the contents of inserted subprojects are not shown.
• Bars snap to whole days where that reads better: a task from 08:00 to 17:00 fills its day. What's late uses the plan's default calendar and judges at the end of the reference day.
• Password-protected plans cannot be opened. Ask the sender for a PDF or an unprotected copy.
• We tested .mpp files saved by Project 98, 2000–2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019. We had no file saved by Project 2021 or later, and no .mpt template, to test. If such a file does not open, ask for an XML copy.

Microsoft's advice and the steps for PDF and XML are from its support pages linked above and Print a project schedule in Project desktop; ProjectLibre's details are from its own website. All were checked on 15 November 2026. Ganttwright was tested with real .mpp files saved by Project 98 to 2019 from the public test data of MPXJ, the open-source library it reads plans with, and with Project XML plans we generated ourselves.