This post on WordPress.org’s support forum wraps it up well, but here’s the downlow about it. But specifically, the post you should read is near the end.
By default, WordPress adds two lines of code in the wp_head() function call.
<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://example.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" />
<link rel="wlwmanifest" type="application/wlwmanifest+xml" href="http://example.com/wp-includes/wlwmanifest.xml" />
These two lines are essentially useless to most people. The wlwmanifest.xml is the resource file needed to enable tagging support for Windows Live Writer (Windows-only).
And, well, the RSD link you don’t really need either; I’ve never used it.
What is the solution to remove these two lines?
There are two options.
First Solution
Create a plugin with the following code
<?php
/*
Plugin Name: WLW Disabler
*/
remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');
?>
OR…
Second Solution
Add these few lines of code to your functions.php theme file
<?php
remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');
?>
After using either of these solutions, it will eliminate the few lines of code from automatically being hooked into the wp_head() call.
Filed under: WordPress Tips , Theme Hacks, Themeing, XHTML
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.
If you use wordpress purely for CMS and know that your not ever going to use a site set up for blogs or flickr etc. then this is technique is good to trim page loading times.
Thanks for heads up wphacks
Joseph,
Some good points you made online just now.
So, in short, you should keep the RSD.
But if you still want to, you can remove the wlw link, which I still do.