Win Amp starts at boot-up

[Snow59]

I have Win NT 4.0 on a Pentium 200 at work. Since upgrading to WinAmp 2.73, WinAmp starts automatically at boot-up. It's not in the system startup menu, How can I keep WinAmp from starting itself?

[Twilightseer]

Waht do you mean by start ? Does it pop up on your screen or does it just appear in the systray ?

[Snow59]

I mean it pops up on the screen. The playlist is gone and it just says "program" instead of the song titles. I have the WinAmp agent turned off.

[Twilightseer]

Try reinstalling Winamp. Do you have any plug-ins installed (name general plug-ins) ?

[Snow59]

Been there done that. I did the uninstall and re-installed 2.73, didn't help. I even downloaded the 2.72 version and installed that one. It still starts itself at boot-up. The only plug-ins would be whatever comes with the "lite" version. I don't have any extras, no skins, no visualizations etc. I'm thinking it must be something in the registry for Win NT but I dont know what.

[Twilightseer]

Ok.
Download this little program and install it.
When it's done, go to your control panel and hit "Startup". You will see there all the programs that are run on Windows Startup. Check out every category. If you see Winamp anywhere, right-click the process and choose "Disable". When this is done, close the program and reboot your computer. Try that and post again to tell me if it worked.

[Snow59]

Cool program! All kinds of stuff I didn't know about start at boot-up, but no WinAmp anything in any of the tabs.

[Twilightseer]

In the Preferences Window, did you enable the feature that checks for new versions ?

[Snow59]

Yes, it's checked. Matter of fact when I booted up this AM with 2.72 installed, WinAmp started and immediately popped up a box informing me that a new version was available. Could that be it?

[Twilightseer]

It sure can !
Uncheck it in the Preferences (and while you're at it, uncheck the other box about "anonymous usage data" stuff).
Uncheck both and Winamp shouldn't pop up anymore at startup.
If this doesn't work, then try disabling Internet access in Winamp: open the Preferences window and select "no Internet connection available". Try this if the first fix doesn't work.

[Snow59]

Still didn't work. Unchecked all 3 boxes and rebooted and WinAmp still starts by itself.

[Snow59]

I still need help! Winamp still starts at boot-up despite my best efforts to figure out why and make it stop. If anyone has any other ideas I would appreciate any assistance.

[Twilightseer]

Are you really sure that you don't have a plug-in such as Eggware autoplay activated ? Are you sure that Winamp is not listed in the programs to be launched on startup ?
Also, try disabling all Internet access (Winamp may be trying to use CDDB, but I doubt it). Make sure that your winamp.ini file is not read-only.
Anyway, this is really odd. That whole problem sounds like trying to square a circle.

[Snow59]

I checked again, I have 3 input plug-ins and 3 ouput plug-ins and one visualization plug-in all from Nullsoft, all came as defaults with the lite version of WinAmp. I checked the Start/Programs/Startup menu and WinAmp is not listed. If it is hidden somewhere else in NT I don't know where else to look. I checked the internet access, it's all off now but this did not make a difference in the earlier version I was using before I loaded 2.73 I checked the winamp.ini file and it is not read only.

[earthsound]

Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel (SCP) http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml will show everything that Windows (95 & up) runs when you start up. On Windows 98, Winamp is found under SCP's "HKLYM / Run" tab (programs loaded from the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (all users) Run" registry key. I'm not sure if it's the same registry key for NT, but SCP will see it, nevertheless.

BTW, it won't necessarily be in your Start Menu > Programs > StartUp folder...

- my .02

david

[Lion King]

remove all associations under preferences/file types

but first rightclick on "program" and click on file info
it seems like winamp is associated with a "program" that cannot be played by winamp

the path of this file is shown in the file info dialog, post the path and the full filename here

with removed file associations winamp should't come up at startup, but loses a bit of its functionality

[earthsound]

If that's the case, the only thing I can think of is that Winamp is configured to handle the file type of a startup sound that Windows is playing, even so, Winamp shouldn't be called when playing the startup sound...

[Lion King]

program.wav isn't the startup sound

does a program.wav actually exist? I doubt that

it must be somehing else

[Snow59]

I removed all associated file types and now my computer will not play any sounds at all. WinAmp didnt start at boot-up, but no sound is not an improvement. Also when I tried to play an MP3, instead of playing the song WinAmp converted the MP3 to a WAV file.

I did right click on "program" and checked its properties. The complete path shown was c:/program and it indicated it was 0 bytes.

I have reloaded WinAmp 2.64 and all seems right with the world. Its doesnt start on boot-up and it plays MP3's instead of changing them to WAVs and my computer sound works again.

Any insight would be appreciated. Am I destined never to upgrade WinAmp again?

[Lion King]

wav file conversion is because you have selected diskwriter in winamp's preferences under output, it should be waveout or directsound for playback

see if this c:\program is mentioned in startup (with twilightseer's prog)
if not delete the file in ms explorer
if yes remove it from startup and delete it after that

now try again

btw. winamp 2.74 is out

p.s.
winamp seems to associate itself sometimes with files with no extension. did anyone else experience this or does anyone know how to fix it? it could be related to snow's problem

[Twilightseer]

Lion King

To fix the "no extension file" problem : Preferences>Option>Clear the box "Default extension for unknown file types" (Generally, MP3 is written in the box, remove it.)

[Lion King]

thanks twilightseer

[Twilightseer]

You're welcome, Lion King

[DJ Egg]

You also have to uncheck "Register files at Winamp start" (Prefs -> FileTypes)

btw, C:\Program is a directory.
It's the default name of the personal folder which you are asked if you want to create during the installation of IE4.01
If you choose "Yes", then this dir opens everytime @ Windows StartUp.

One possible fix is to uncheck the option referred to above, then:
Close -> Reopen -> Close Winamp -> Reboot

Goto: Add/Remove Programs Control Panel
Select: Micro$oft Internet Explorer -> Click "Add/Remove button" -> Select "Repair IE"
(This option is available in IE5.0 & above)