The famous media player may return at some point

Sep 17, 2018 05:43 GMT  ·  By

Winamp is without a doubt one of the most famous media players out there despite not receiving a single update in nearly 5 years.

However, there are millions of users out there still running it and hoping that at some point Radionomy, the company that purchased it back in 2014, would release a new version.

The current owner of Winamp promised major updates ever since it took over the company, and despite the release notes of a beta build rolling out at that point, no downloadable package was available for users to try out.

And yet, here we are nearly five years later getting our hands on the very first Winamp beta released under Radionomy’s umbrella.

What’s important to know from the very beginning is that this isn’t an official release, but only a leak published online by an unknown source. The build appears to be dated October 26, 2016, and a VirusTotal scan generates two different warnings, possibly false positives.

Windows 7 and newer recommended

The installer is called winamp58_3653_beta_full_en-us.exe and comes with a series of improvements, like full support for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 – however, note that the latest stable release of Winamp is also running smoothly on Windows 10, but this new beta is supposed to address all compatibility glitches.

There’s a dedicated setting to completely disable Winamp’s video support, as well as plenty of fixes that refine the performance of the player.

Starting with this beta, Windows XP Service Pack 3 is the minimum-required operating system, and the developing team recommends using at least Windows 7 to benefit from the full feature package.

At this point, it’s not yet known whether a new stable version is planned or not, but given that this beta has leaked, there’s a chance that work on a Winamp refresh has advanced in the last couple of years. However, you can try out this new beta to see what’s changed since the Radionomy takeover.

Via Neowin

Winamp 5.8 Beta