The last time we talked about Winamp was in November 2021, when its developers announced the registration of a public beta that never fully materialized. Eight months later, the official forum has just confirmed the release of a brand new build for the player, version 5.9 RC1. It includes many background adjustments and also carries several technical problems that will be fixed in the final build, but the point is that there is a new Winamp, and anyone can try it.
The last official email I received about the Winamp beta was in February of this year. I filled out the form, shared feedback... and heard nothing more. I imagine my opinions weren't aligned with the developers' vision, but none of that matters. The news comes via the official forum, where the new Winamp in its version 5.9 RC1 was announced and published. At first glance, this Winamp isn't much different from its predecessors, but if we look closely at its changelog, it actually received many adjustments.
The new Winamp 5.9 RC1
The most complex part of the whole project (according to its developers) was the migration from VS2008 to VS2019, but that update has a price: the minimum supported operating system is now is Windows 7 SP1. Users of XP and Vista won't be able to access Winamp 5.9 RC1; however, the "historical" installers aren't going anywhere, and we can continue using them in those legacy environments.
Winamp 5.9 RC1 improves compatibility with Windows 11, optimizes streaming under https addresses, fixes multiple memory leaks, and updates several internal modules. On the other side, we find problems with commands like View File Info, ReplayGain calculations for OGG Vorbis are broken, compatibility with many plugins was lost, and there's an issue with the equalizer presets list.
In summary, more than a Release Candidate, we should interpret Winamp 5.9 as a very early beta. These failures will be fixed in the final build, but if your current Winamp setup is customized to the core, I don't recommend updating. In any case, the developers are looking for feedback (especially from users on Windows 7 and Windows 8.x), and we hope new builds arrive soon.
(Note from the editor: The forum doesn't use HTTPS, and VirusTotal reports six warnings for the installer, but the Winamp executable is clean)
Download Winamp 5.9 RC1: Click here
