Winamp is a media player for Microsoft Windows. This article will serve as an informative guide and give you a clear understanding of how to perform a silent installation of Winamp from the command line using the EXE installer.
How to Install Winamp Silently
Winamp Silent Install (EXE)
- Navigate to: https://www.winamp.com/
- Download the EXE to a folder created at (C:\Downloads)
- Open an Elevated Command Prompt by Right-Clicking on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator
- Navigate to the C:\Downloads folder
- Enter the following command: winamp58_3660_beta_full_en-us.exe /S
- Press Enter
After a few moments you should see the Winamp Desktop Shortcut appear. You will also find entries in the Start Menu, Installation Directory, and Programs and Features in the Control Panel.
| Software Title: | Winamp |
| Vendor: | Winamp SA |
| Version: | 5.8 |
| Architecture: | x86 |
| Installer Type: | EXE |
| Silent Install Switch: | winamp58_3660_beta_full_en-us.exe /S |
| Silent Uninstall Switch (32-bit System) | "%ProgramFiles%\Winamp\UninstWA.exe" /S |
| Silent Uninstall Switch (64-bit System) | "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Winamp\UninstWA.exe" /S |
| Download Link: | https://www.winamp.com/ |
The information above provides a quick overview of the software title, vendor, silent install, and silent uninstall switches. The download links provided take you directly to the vendors website. Continue reading if you are interested in additional details and configurations.
Additional Configurations
Change Default Installation Directory
You can change the default installation directory by using the following command line parameters. In this example, I’m installing Winamp to “C:\Winamp”
winamp58_3660_beta_full_en-us.exe /S /D=C:\Winamp |
Suppress Winamp Setup Wizard
Winamp presents the user with a Setup Wizard after launching the application for the first time. You can bypass the Setup Wizard by performing the following steps.
- Follow the “How to Install Winamp Silently” steps mentioned earlier in the article
- Open Windows PowerShell by Right-Clicking on Windows PowerShell and selecting Run as Administrator
- Enter the following command:
(Get-Content "$env:APPDATA\Winamp\winamp.ini") | ForEach-Object { $_ -replace "NeedReg=1" , "NeedReg=0" } | Set-Content "$env:APPDATA\Winamp\winamp.ini"Customize Winamp Settings
- Install Winamp and open the application
- Navigate to the Options tab and select Preferences
- Configure Settings to your preferences
- Exit out of the Winamp application
- Copy the winamp.ini file from “%APPDATA%\Winamp\winamp.ini” to “C:\Downloads\winamp.ini”
- Uninstall Winamp
- Follow the “How to Install Winamp Silently” steps mentioned earlier in the article
- Copy the “C:\Downloads\winamp.ini” to “%APPDATA%\Winamp\winamp.ini” and overwrite the exisiting file
Disable Check for New Versions of Winamp at Startup
- Open Windows PowerShell by Right-Clicking on Windows PowerShell and selecting Run as Administrator
- Enter the following command:
(Get-Content "$env:APPDATA\Winamp\winamp.ini") | ForEach-Object { $_ -replace "newverchk=1" , "newverchk=0" } | Set-Content "$env:APPDATA\Winamp\winamp.ini"Disable Anonymous Usage Statistics
- Open Windows PowerShell by Right-Clicking on Windows PowerShell and selecting Run as Administrator
- Enter the following command:
(Get-Content "$env:APPDATA\Winamp\winamp.ini") | ForEach-Object { $_ -replace "newverchk2=1" , "newverchk2=0" } | Set-Content "$env:APPDATA\Winamp\winamp.ini"How to Uninstall Winamp Silently
- Open an Elevated Command Prompt by Right-Clicking on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator
- Enter one of the following commands:
Winamp Silent Uninstall (EXE) on 32-bit System
"%ProgramFiles%\Winamp\UninstWA.exe" /S |
Winamp Silent Uninstall (EXE) on 64-bit System
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Winamp\UninstWA.exe" /S |
Always make sure to test everything in a development environment prior to implementing anything into production. The information in this article is provided “As Is” without warranty of any kind.