INSTALLING A NEW WINAMP SKIN

Winamp is a clever little audio player which will play most audio 
files including CD's, MP3's, MIDI and WAV files. It has all the 
features of a CD player including a graphic equaliser and a playlist 
editor. Best of all, while it has a perfectly functional appearance 
in it's basic form, that appearance or "skin" can be altered to 
reflect your individual interests, moods and personality.

This installation file is fairly comprehensive, old-hands can ignore
most of it but first-timers read on. First you need the basic Winamp 
player. If you've already got it, skip to "Installing the Skin" 
below. If you haven't got it, download from the Winamp website at 
<http://www.winamp.com>. Even if you already have a copy of Winamp,
it's still worth checking the site for the latest version.

Place the Winamp installation file into a temporary folder then 
double-click it. It's a self-extracting file which installs Winamp 
into your "Program Files" folder. It will launch automatically, play 
a sample file at you and open a scary splash screen. At this point 
you might like to play around with the options and preferences to get 
it working the way you like it. Disable that splash screen for a 
start - it scares the willies out of me!

Happy? Ok, let's change the basic Winamp skin into something quite 
different.

INSTALLING THE SKIN

Now, if you look in the "C:\Program Files\Winamp" folder there are 
two sub-folders called "Skins" and "Plugins". Ignore the "Plugins" 
for now. As you're already reading this, you've downloaded the 
zipfile containing the new skin and put it into a temporary folder. 
If you've already unzipped everything you should have a folder with 
the same name as the skin. Drag this into the "Skins" folder within 
the main Winamp folder. If you haven't unzipped yet, now's the time 
to do so and follow the above procedure.

Now, fire up your basic Winamp, click the symbol at the very top 
left and then on "Options" in the menu which drops down. Another 
menu should now open, select the second item "Skin Browser" which 
will bring up the "Skins" list from which you can select the 
new one. Hit "Close" and that's it. Other skins can be downloaded 
and installed in exactly the same way BUT remember that every one 
MUST have it's own sub-folder within "Skins". Sometimes the file 
unzips with a folder already in place, sometimes it doesn't. In 
the latter case you have to create the folder and stick the files 
in it yourself.

All skins have the same arangement of controls, irrespective of 
what the skin actually looks like. Some designs miss off certain 
control labels where these would obscure aesthetics of the design. 
However, the controls are still there as you will see if you run 
your mouse over the skin where you'd expect the controls to be. 
See the "controls.jpg" in the "Information" folder for a diagram.
  
Any problems, email me at:-
<LarryHall@fritz.globalnet.co.uk>
with as full a description of the problem as possible.

THE PRISONER MUSIC SITE
<http://www.geocities.com/Area51/4031>

LAST BUT NOT LEAST ........

PLEASE register your copy of Winamp which is shareware but uncrippled 
and nag-free. It's such a fiendishly clever and useful programme it's 
well worth the modest $10 asking price.