14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve known for a while that Winamp was supposed to make a comeback, but up to this point, it was pretty much impossible to predict when a new version would be launched.
A new build showed up out of nowhere last week, and even though it doesn’t come with an impressive number of changes, it does pave the way for more bigger new features in the coming updates.
This is because with the release of version 5.9 RC1 build 9999, Winamp is making the switch from VS 2008 to VS 2019, therefore switching to a current version that allows for more new functionality to be added.
Another big change in this release is the full support for Windows 11. At the same time, Winamp has dropped support for Windows XP and Windows Vista, so starting with this build, you’re going to need at least Windows 7 to run the app.
“This is the culmination of 4 years' work since the 5.8 release. Two dev teams, and a pandemic-induced hiatus period inbetween. To the end-user, it might not seem like there's a whole heap of changes, but the largest and hardest part was actually migrating the entire project from VS2008 to VS2019 and getting it all to build successfully. The groundwork has now been laid, and now we can concentrate more on features. Whether fixing/replacing old ones or adding new,” the dev team explains.
You can find the full changelog on our Windows software downloads page linked above.
Needless to say, Winamp also comes with a series of known issues, but the dev team says it’s already working on bigger changes, including an update of OpenSSL to 3.0.5, native support for more formats, and other refinements that would once again make Winamp the best media player out there.