Icon of program: QWave

QWave for Windows

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Editors’ Review

Download.com staff

We like the idea of QWave in theory; it's an extremely lightweight media player that lets users instantly play audio files instead of waiting for a program like Windows Media Player or iTunes to load. Unfortunately, the program's lack of documentation and virtually nonexistent interface make it confusing to use.

We installed the program and then attempted to launch it. This produced a dialogue that asked if we wanted to "Add QPlay to menu." We weren't sure exactly what menu it meant, but we clicked yes. Because the publisher's description mentions an icon in the System Tray we looked for it there, but didn't see it. We checked the included Readme file, but it contained only one sentence, which was about the program's installation. It finally occurred to us to right-click on an audio file, and sure enough, QPlay was an option. We selected it, and the track started playing immediately. As promised, this is a much faster way to play an audio track than waiting for a full-featured media player to load. We weren't sure if the program offered any other functionality--allowing us to pause and unpause songs, for example--so we attempted to click on the icon in the System Tray. It turns out that merely mousing over the icon causes the program to shut down, and we're not sure if this is by design or not. Overall, although QWave worked, we felt puzzled by its mysterious operation.

QWave is free. It comes as a ZIP file and installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend this program with reservations; it works, but it's not necessarily easy to use.

What’s new in version 1.6

Version 1.6 includes unspecified updates.
Icon of program: QWave

QWave for Windows

Download now

Used QWave for Windows? Share your experience and help other users.

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Full Specifications

GENERAL
Release
Latest update
Version
1.6
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Platform
Windows
Operating System
  • Windows 7
  • Windows 10
  • Windows ME
  • Windows 98
  • Windows 2000
  • Windows NT
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows XP
  • Windows 95
  • Windows 2003
  • Windows Server
Additional Requirements
None
POPULARITY
Total Downloads
36,955
Downloads Last Week
2
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Program available in other languages

Last Updated

User Reviews

3.6/5

9 User Votes

Developer’s Description

By ACAPsoft
Access and play WAV files without loading a much larger executable.
QWave is designed to simplify the previewing of audio files Most players will take up to 10 seconds to load just the program. QWave gets to the point faster by having only an icon in the System Tray and does nothing during start-up other than play the file. In addition, QWave itself is extremely small (6 KB - the ReadMe is larger than the program itself) and uses the in-built Media Control Interface to play files. Thus, QWave supports almost all Multi-Media files, including Wave, MIDI, MP3, MPEG and AVI. (Audio only.) QWave configures itself to appear in the context menu of all files for easy previewing, but QWave can also be used as the default player.
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