How do I get winamp to begin playing on startup?

[brossy]

Is there any way to get winamp to begin playing a track as soon as it is opened up?

[DJ Egg]

1. Edit your Desktop shortcut icon to include the playlist path, eg:
"C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.exe" "C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.m3u"
Note that quotation marks are necessary if the path/s contain any spaces, otherwise:
C:\Progra~1\Winamp\winamp.exe C:\Music\MP3\playlist.pls

You can create new shortcuts anywhere on your HDD & as many as you want.
Naturally, you'll have to give each one a different name if you create more than one shortcut in any one given dir.

Rt click Desktop -OR- Explorer -> File Menu -> New -> shortcut
Command line as above (example)
etc etc.

You can even place one in your StartUp folder
(C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup)
to make Winamp open & play the specified list @ Windows bootup.

All available command line parameters are listed here:
http://www.winamp.com/nsdn/winamp2x/dev/sdk/api.jhtml

2. In Explorer, double click the actual file or playlist.
NB: Requires Winamp to be the default player for the particular file type.
Also requires "Enqueue as default action" to be unchecked
(Winamp Prefs -> File Types)

You can also goto: Winamp Prefs -> Options & checkmark "allow multiple instances"
This way, you can have Winamp open already & when you click on a new file it will open & start playing in a new instance of Winamp, thus leaving your original playlist intact in the first instance of Winamp. Always close the original version last, thus making sure Winamp opens with your original playlist next time you open it.
If you use option 1 (above), then remember to save your playlist each time you add any new files (Playlist Editor -> List button [bottom rt corner] -> Save List)

3. Windows "Start" Button -> Run
Type: Winamp & hit Enter
Voila! Opens Winamp & starts playing the most recently displayed playlist.
You'll only need to type this in once, so next time you goto Start -> Run it'll still be there.
You may have to use your "Down arrow" cursor to locate it
(if you've since used the Run command for anything else)

You can also use this option to specify different paths to different playlists
(by using the same format as in option 1)
This gets even more interesting if you also allow multiple instances.
NB: Depending on your soundcard, you may have to use the DirectSound Output (instead of WaveOut) to enable multiple audio streams when using more than one instance of Winamp.

4) For all you lazy-types who can't be bothered with the above suggestions

Plugins

There's an autoplay plugin available, funnily enough, by Eggware!
Full details here

There's also another plugin called WinAlarm (note: now discontinued)

Also, Resumer is very popular.

Update:
More "alarm" plugins here.
Apparently, Mikroamp plugin also includes an autoplay on startup feature (amongst many other features).

Update2:
And now for the best & simplest plugin of them all . . .
Autoplay and Time Restore Plugin - by DrO

[sgrog]

I wonder if I just created a shortcut to a .plu file, which is registered to be loaded byy WinAmp, would the default WinAmp behavior be to play it? I suppose I could just click on a playlist file in Explorer as well. I could even create a toolbar pointing to a folder with all of my playlists.

[DJ Egg]

Originally posted by DJEgg
2. In Explorer, double click the actual music file or playlist.
NB: Requires Winamp to be the default player for the particular file type.

Naturally, clicking a shortcut to a file is the equivalent of opening the source file itself.

btw, I take it you meant .pls playlist, not .plu ?!?!

[rpcraft]

If you want your playlist to autoplay just copu a shortcut of it into the start menu for windows startup. It will automatically start winamp and start your play list. Put Winamp on shuffle and set it so that it varies the shuffle a lot and you probably wont hear the same song on startup fo a long time. It works great for in the car. That way i don't have to start at the beginning of the list every time. hope this helps

[DJ Egg]

Originally posted by DJEgg
1. Edit your Desktop shortcut icon to include the playlist path, eg:
"C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.exe" "C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.m3u"

You can create new shortcuts anywhere on your HDD & as many as you want.

You can even place one in your StartUp folder
(C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup)
to make Winamp open & play the specified list @ Windows bootup.

Yes, you can just place a simple shortcut to your actual playlist file in the startup folder . . . but the main reason I included the path to winamp.exe and then the playlist file in the example above is because not everybody has Winamp set up as their default .M3U or .PLS playlist player. I'd hate to see WMP or RealPlayer or some other god forsaken player (eg. MMJB) firing up @ startup instead of Winamp

[Boredom801]

I'm using the program 'Black Alarm Clock' and I was wondering if there was a way to set it up so WinAmp is triggered to start. I tried the options discussed here. I even tried for it to just run the default playlist file (winamp.m3u), but none of them seem to work. Please help!!

[JonnyMac]

First of all I would to thank you for doing some of your own searching before posting a tech support question. However this looks more like a Black Alarm question that a Winamp question. Try contacting the developer of Black Alarm for tech support. Otherwise, I do have a suggestion. In whatever way you set Black Alarm with Winamp try enclosing the path name for the media file or playlist you wish to use in double quotes. Example…
If the media file or playlist you are using is
C:\Music Files\Wake Up.pls
Try this
"C:\Music Files\Wake Up.pls"

Also you might be interested in using a Winamp plug-in as a alarm. Go to Winamp 2 Plug-ins and do a search with the key word alarm

[DJ Egg]

Originally posted by DJEgg
For all you lazy types who can't be bothered with any of the above suggestions
There's also an autoplay plugin available, funnily enough, by Eggware!
Full details here
There's also another plugin called WinAlarm

Heyhey
Note, I've edited the url's so they now point to Winamp 2x plugins site.

[edit]
Alas, it would seem that WinAlarm plugin has been removed.
Though I'll see if I can find an alternative location, eg. author's site.

Eggware plugin is still available, and I'm sure there's more alarm plugins out there, as JM said.

btw, what's your Windows OS, and why didn't the above suggestion work?
(shortcut to winamp.exe with switch to playlist placed in StartUp folder)

[Boredom801]

Well, I am running WinXP Pro and I don't think they worked because the program only recognizes up until a space, and then it disregards everything after that (or at least that's the way it appears). I tried to tell it just to open the playlist, but that didn't work either. It's a pretty nice program if you only want to hear one song over and over again.

[DJ Egg]

Which program only recognizes up to a space? This "Black Alarm Clock" thing?
So, what happens if there's a space in the dir name, eg. "C:\My Music"?

As long as Winamp is setup as the default player, can't you just make it open a playlist file?

eg. open:
C:\Music\playlist.m3u

Winamp supports spaces in the command line, but as long as they are enclosed by quotes, eg. the examples I gave above actually require the quotation marks because there's spaces in the path.

This requires quotes:

"C:\Program Files\Winamp\Winamp.exe" "C:\My Music\playlist.m3u"

This requires partial quotes:

"C:\Program Files\Winamp\Winamp.exe" C:\music\playlist.m3u

This requires no quotes:

C:\Winamp\winamp.exe C:\Music\playlist.m3u

A shortcut in your personal startup folder should work:
C:\Documents and Settings\(your username)\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

[Boredom801]

I think it supports spaces in path names, but if there a space after a .xyz it ignores the 'switch' portion of it. And, I think the code was written in a way that if you try to open anything but an exe file, it just sits there and does nothing.

[DJ Egg]

Ok, so don't use Black Alarm Clock then, use one of our methods instead

It can't be much good if it doesn't support switches.
That's a pretty poor show if you ask me.

[Slyder]

For the autoplay plugin: Where do I have to click the check box. Where can i find it?
Does it work for Winamp 2x?

[DJ Egg]

I've updated my original post above
________________________________________________________________

There's also an autoplay plugin available, funnily enough, by Eggware!
Full details here

There's also another plugin called WinAlarm (note: now discontinued)

Update:
More "alarm" plugins here.
Apparently, Mikroamp plugin also includes an autoplay on startup feature (amongst many other features).

_________________________________________________________

Most (if not all) these plugins are of the General Purpose variety.
All of them are Winamp 2.x plugins.
Go to: Prefs (Ctrl+P) -> Plugins -> General Purpose.
Hi-lite the listed plugin (naturally, you need to install it first)
then click "configure" . . .

[Slyder]

YEESSS!! Thank you very much! It works now!
C ya
Slyder

[Balaam's Miracl]

Originally posted by DJ Egg
There's also an autoplay plugin available, funnily enough, by Eggware!
Full details here

YAY!!! This plugin does EXACTLY what i wanted. I have a playlist but have not saved it to a file (well, not myself anyway) and for several reasons, saving the playlist to file would be inpractical in my case. Let alone loading it from the commandline.

I have tried to find a commandline (something like "winamp.exe /play") option to get WinAmp2.91 to start playing on startup and after i couldn't find info on the commandline options in the files in the WinAmp directory on my PC, i decided to hit the forums, did a search here for "play on startup" and presto, one solution!

Why do i explain how i've found this solution? Dunno, maybe someone reading this (and who has skipped the "how to find an answer" topic) might find it a useful tip for finding a solution to his/her question or problem

[escozul]

This thread is pretty old. From what I've seen it's no longer valid since the plugin links don't work.

I will try to reenable it cause I want to do exactly that. Have the winamp autoplay whenever started. However I do not wish for it to autostart on a specific pls file or audio file. I want it to autostart whichever playlist was active the last time winamp shut down.
That is by default the setting of winamp. If you shut it down and reopen it, it waits for you to press play on the song that was playing the last time it closed. So what I need is for winamp to press the play buttong automaticaly.

Ideally the play would move the "current file" to a random file in the playlist without activating the shuffle function.

The reason for that is because I use winamp 5.666 and the dsp plugin of shoutcast to broadcast a big playlist that includes also song ids before each song. So I cannot use shuffle as that would cause the ids to not sunc with the songs. let alone the fact that I might end up hearing 3 - 4 ids in a row then 2-3 songs and then ids and so on...
I need the autostart function cause the dsp plugin causes winamp to hang from time to time and I have the auto restart option enabled in the preferences of error feedback of the program. However although when the crash occurs winamp starts normally, it wont' start playing until I press play.

Any idees?

[Aminifu]

Hi escozul,

Try this plug-in (http://winampplugins.co.uk/timerestore.html), it can be setup to do what you want.

[davor.geci]

You can also use the Command line parameters. I have recorded a short video on how to AutoPlay Winamp at Winamp launch.

[DrO]

which requires a 5.66x release to able to do it. there's plenty of ways to do it, be it the command-line or the plug-in or other plug-ins (as my plug-in probably is overkill for most people now, but that's what happens when they develop over time).

[escozul]

Guys Thanks for all the answers! Will look through all of them and report back! appreciate it!

[MrSinatra]

DrO's plugin is likely the best solution for most folks, imo.