Skip to main content

We celebrate Winamp’s life by gushing about our favorite skins

celebrate winamp gushing favorite skins alien 2
Image used with permission by copyright holder

I have an affinity for the 90s like few others do. That includes Winamp, the media player that’s been around since 1997, which offers its users the ability to personalize the player with user-created skins, along with a bevy of other features, including MP3 and CD ripping. 

Growing up, I not only developed a love for Winamp and its skins, but I also got into a bunch of other stuff you wouldn’t expect from a kid in the 90s and 2000s. I made a habit of tricking my room out with lava lamps, candles and incense to go along with whatever Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd or song/playlist I was listening to at the time. Picking a Winamp skin was part of this customization process. I’d often go with a skin that would match the hue given off by one of my lamps. Picking an appropriate desktop theme to match with the Winamp skin I chose was also a must.

Though Winamp has plenty of awesome skins, my tastes led me to develop a love for two Winamp skins in particular. One was called The Silence v5. Not only did it sport an awesome green/black color combination, but everything down to the font at the top of skin made it look eerie. Plus, usually I paired it with a matching Alien desktop theme. I love/loved Alien and Aliens, so finding an awesome desktop theme with a matching Winamp skin to go with all the other stuff going on in my room all those years was just gravy.

So, here’s how my desktop would often look growing up, when I combined The Silence v5 with a desktop theme dubbed Alien ’97 Commemoration.

Alien 1
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Awesome huh? This wasn’t the only Winamp skin I was fond of. I also liked pairing a skin called MassAMP with another Alien desktop theme simply called Aliens the Movie. MassAMP’s combination of blacks, greys and blues still retained that kooky quality offered by The Silence v5, while offering a completely different set of aesthetics that still gave me the spooky feel I was going for. That’s pictured at the top.

Though The Silence v5 and MassAMP are our two favorite Winamp skins, we’re wondering what your faves are. Sound off in the comments below.

Konrad Krawczyk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…
Best printer deals: 10+ cheap printers on sale as low as $79
An HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e all-in-one printer rests on a white table with plants and a thumb drive beside it.

Even though going digital has become easier than ever, there is still a need to print, especially if you're a small or medium business. Luckily, the world of printers hasn't slowed down at all in the past few years, so whether you need to print character sheets for your D&D campaign or receipts for your business, there are a lot of printers to pick from. In fact, some of the best printer brands on the market have a lot of solid options, including in the budget range for those who don't need a ton of printing. And while it may be hard to find a good deal on the best printers, we're pretty sure our collection of deals will get you pretty close.
Canon Pixma TR4722 -- $79, was $99

While it isn’t one of the best all-in-one printers, it’s certainly one of the most affordable. There’s something to be said about a printer that can come in at such a low price yet still offer quality printing. This printer will work well in any home, apartment, or dorm room setting. It even goes beyond printing and is capable of making copies, scanning, and faxing. It connects easily to your devices with built-in wireless connectivity, and it can print at a rate of about nine pages per minute monochrome and four pages per minute color.

Read more
Save $450 on this 17-inch HP gaming laptop with an RTX 4060
An HP Omen 17 laptop on a desk.

Over at HP, there are some excellent gaming laptop deals with $450 off the HP Omen 17t gaming laptop. Usually it costs $1,700, but right now you can buy the gaming laptop for $1,250 so you save $450 off the regular price. A great deal for anyone who wants a mid-range gaming laptop for less, let’s take a look at what it offers before you tap the buy button below.

Why you should buy the HP Omen 17t
HP isn’t listed on our look at the best gaming laptop brands but it’s still well worth considering thanks to the Omen range being pretty good for gaming. This particular model has a 13th-generation Intel Core i7-13700Hx processor paired up with 16GB of memory and 512GB of SSD storage.

Read more
Best VPN deals: Save on NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark
A close-up of a computer monitor displaying a generic VPN.

There are a lot of things online that might require the use of VPN, whether it's avoiding something like geoblocks, or trying to protect your identity online. Either way, VPNs have become ubiquitous these days, and some of the best VPN services provide you with a suite of services beyond just a VPN. That can include things like adblocking or, in the case of something like Proton, potentially a whole suite of services such as email and cloud storage. Whatever you're looking for, though, there's likely a great VPN for you, which is why we've gone and collected the best VPN deals across the board so that you don't have to do the extra legwork.

Nord VPN 12-month basic subscription -- $69, was $124

Read more