“wlwmanifest.xml” what is it???

/wp-includes/general-template.php

Lines 832-835.

function wlwmanifest_link() {
	echo ' <link rel="wlwmanifest" type="application/wlwmanifest+xml" href="'
		. get_bloginfo('wpurl') . '/wp-includes/wlwmanifest.xml" /> ';
}

You can delete them, also the lines above it:

function rsd_link() {
	echo '	<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="' . get_bloginfo('wpurl') . "/xmlrpc.php?rsd\" />\n";
}

As they don’t seem to have any use either.

wlwmanifest.xml is the resource file needed to enable tagging support for Windows Live Writer.

Thanks for confirming it xknown.

thanks for all the help, i just searched the web and found more info about it on trac database. and “xknown” was right, it is indeed live writer stuff. I feel there should be an option checkbox to have this appear or not since i doubt too many people actually use live writer. plus it will save bandwidth and resources if the server is asking all your visitors to download this file unnecessarily.

sahaskatta, disabling it won’t save too much bandwidth, wlwmanifest.xml is only downloaded if you configure Windows Live Writer for your site (your visitors will never download this file).

Anyway, you can use the following plugin if you don’t use any Blog client:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: WLW Disabler
*/

remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');
?>

I tweaked your plugin, it adds a blank line to the very top of pages generated by WordPress. WLW Disabler.

For anyone coming across this thread, you can just comment it out, but line 139 in /wp-includes/default-filters.php also needs to be commented out too or there will be an error:

// add_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');

The xmlrpc.php line that patung mentioned I know is a “remote procedure call” protocol used by desktop blogging clients (such as MarsEdit and Ecto). If you only use your web browser to administer WordPress you probably are safe to comment that out too.

robertm: No need to comment out anything. Just add these lines to your theme’s functions.php file:

remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');

Or use the plugin above. Same thing. Always preferable to use plugins/themes instead of hacking core files. Hacking core files makes it more annoying when you upgrade.

I would’nt worry about it …I use WLW a lot and also advise all my PC clients to use it. WLW is I have to admit brilliant and is the only reason I turn my PC on . I dislike Microsoft and all that they stand for but this is a very easy, free and great tool for sprucing up the content of your blog. I havnt found a blog editor as good for editing Both posts and pages.
ATB
W

This kind of thing should be configurable instead of adding lines to code by default for software that many people don’t use. Just makes things more confusing.

“your visitors will never download this file”…

Er, no – I am now getting a lot of direct hits on this file, presumably being used as a hacker test for a WordPress installation on the domain…

Definitely best to disable this, if you’ve got the time

I recommend not disabling these. The RSD link is used by blog clients for discovery of the XML-RPC API end point. Removing will cause problems for many other blog clients, not just Windows Live Writer users.

What is Windows Live Writer? Does it do anything important? I found it on my wedding photography blog too and didn’t know what it did.

read more: Weblog_Client

So if I intend to only ever post via my admin screen off my P.C then I can consider it safe to remove it from my head?

I’m talking about:

<link rel=”EditURI” type=”application/rsd+xml” title=”RSD” href=”https://www.x.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd&#8221; />
<link rel=”wlwmanifest” type=”application/wlwmanifest+xml” href=”https://www.x.com/wp-includes/wlwmanifest.xml&#8221; />

Are these only there if you intend to use 3rd party services to post like you mobile phone etc?