Winamp is back: music player for PCs from Windows 7 to Windows 11

Hans Christian Dirscherl

Winamp 5.9 Release Candidate 1 Build 9999 is available for download – here in the Winamp forum you can find the changelog and the download link. This was preceded by four years of development.

Winamp is one of the software classics of the late 1990s and early 2000s. You could use it to rip music CDs and quickly create an extensive MP3 collection. The eye also enjoyed different skins including visualizations. But the takeover by AOL in 1999 soon turned out to be fatal for the popular music player: its popularity continued to decline until Winamp finally disappeared.

Download

Then, in 2018, Winamp 5.8 suddenly appeared. But then the former software star disappeared from the stage again. Until July 26, 2022: Winamp 5.9 Release Candidate 1 Build 9999 has been available for download here since that day.

Note: Some virus scanners probably raise an alarm during the download. These are supposed to be false alarms.

The new Winamp can be installed on Windows computers from Windows 7 SP1 and is now also compatible with Windows 11. Windows XP and Vista, on the other hand, no longer support the new Winamp. Some older plugins should also no longer work with the new version. This problem may be solved with the workaround described here. There are also language packs for separate installation.

That is new

Winamp 5.9 Release Candidate 1 Build 9999 is based on a new software and is being developed with Visual Studio 2019. This should clear the way for upcoming new functions. Because Winamp 5.9 Release Candidate 1 Build 9999 brings hardly any relevant innovations. This software version represents the basis for future developments, so to speak.

In the forum post for the new version, the developers also list the bugs that are already known. According to their own words, the developers are now working on the final version of Winamp 5.9.0.

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