Winamp crashes on selecting plugins or closing in Windows 8.1

Jefe · 13th June 2014, 19:59

Hi all, glad to see that Winamp.com is still up and running.

Anyway, I had been having lots of issues with Winamp crashing on my new Window 8.1 machine, which would happen when selecting various plugins, or shutting down with them active.

But I did figure out the problem - I installed Winamp in the default folder of C:\Program Files (x86)\Winamp. Microsoft, not trusting users or programs to make changes to that folder, even simple ones like .ini files, locked it up with some rather annoying and hard to disable security permissions. It's like Microsoft tried really hard to make old programs break so they'd buy updated ones.

So I reinstalled Winamp to C:\Winamp and everything worked perfectly. Hope this helps - and keep this in mind for any other "old-school" programs you want to install. Make your own "Program Files" folder to avoid at least some of these compatibility issues.

DrO · 13th June 2014, 22:37

there is no reason for winamp to have issues when installed in the default location on any version of Windows as long as your using the current and patched version (links are in the news thread). it would only be from old / incompatible 3rd party plug-ins that any of what your describing is even vaguely required.

Jefe · 13th June 2014, 23:47

Yes, I was using an old plugin, "You Wa Shock," which hasn't been updated for many years, but worked fine on my XP and Vista machines. I tried the plugin both with a fresh install of the current version of Winamp, and an older build. It crashed with both builds when trying to unload the plugin or close Winamp. Similarly attempting to delete (and I assume edit/save) Milkdrop presets from inside Milkdrop also failed. That's when it hit me that the crashes were from plugins trying save inside the Winamp folder.

So I moved it to another folder and that was that. Just wanted to share in case it helps anyone else.

DrO · 14th June 2014, 09:39

ok then what you've done is correct for your use case. the milkdrop presets thing is one of the last bits in Winamp which isn't UAC compatible (hence the need to have things in a different folder which has write support).

for the plug-in there's little that can be done with what I remember about it.

13th June 2014, 19:59	#1
Jefe Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: T E X A S Posts: 23	Winamp crashes on selecting plugins or closing in Windows 8.1 Hi all, glad to see that Winamp.com is still up and running. Anyway, I had been having lots of issues with Winamp crashing on my new Window 8.1 machine, which would happen when selecting various plugins, or shutting down with them active. But I did figure out the problem - I installed Winamp in the default folder of C:\Program Files (x86)\Winamp. Microsoft, not trusting users or programs to make changes to that folder, even simple ones like .ini files, locked it up with some rather annoying and hard to disable security permissions. It's like Microsoft tried really hard to make old programs break so they'd buy updated ones. So I reinstalled Winamp to C:\Winamp and everything worked perfectly. Hope this helps - and keep this in mind for any other "old-school" programs you want to install. Make your own "Program Files" folder to avoid at least some of these compatibility issues.

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13th June 2014, 22:37	#2
DrO Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 27,873	there is no reason for winamp to have issues when installed in the default location on any version of Windows as long as your using the current and patched version (links are in the news thread). it would only be from old / incompatible 3rd party plug-ins that any of what your describing is even vaguely required.

13th June 2014, 23:47	#3
Jefe Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: T E X A S Posts: 23	Yes, I was using an old plugin, "You Wa Shock," which hasn't been updated for many years, but worked fine on my XP and Vista machines. I tried the plugin both with a fresh install of the current version of Winamp, and an older build. It crashed with both builds when trying to unload the plugin or close Winamp. Similarly attempting to delete (and I assume edit/save) Milkdrop presets from inside Milkdrop also failed. That's when it hit me that the crashes were from plugins trying save inside the Winamp folder. So I moved it to another folder and that was that. Just wanted to share in case it helps anyone else.

14th June 2014, 09:39	#4
DrO Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 27,873	ok then what you've done is correct for your use case. the milkdrop presets thing is one of the last bits in Winamp which isn't UAC compatible (hence the need to have things in a different folder which has write support). for the plug-in there's little that can be done with what I remember about it.