diff --git a/.github/workflows/windows-build.yml b/.github/workflows/windows-build.yml
index d28fca90..37de619f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/windows-build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/windows-build.yml
@@ -106,9 +106,9 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Download winsparkle
         run: |
-          Invoke-Webrequest -UseBasicParsing https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle/releases/download/v0.7.0/WinSparkle-0.7.0.zip -OutFile out.zip
+          Invoke-Webrequest -UseBasicParsing https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle/releases/download/v0.8.0/WinSparkle-0.8.0.zip -OutFile out.zip
           Expand-Archive out.zip
-          Move-Item 'out\WinSparkle-0.7.0\Release\*' '.\'
+          Move-Item 'out\WinSparkle-0.8.0\Release\*' '.\'
 
       - name: Build EDMC
         run: |
diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
index 7cb178e4..c317dd3a 100644
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -34,6 +34,17 @@ produce the Windows executables and installer.
 
 ---
 
+Pre-Release 5.9.0-rc1 
+===
+This release contains the removal of the EDDB module, as well as a few under-the-hood
+updates. 
+
+* Removes the EDDB plugin due to EDDB shutting down.
+* Unsets EDDB as the default handler for certain URL preferences.
+* Updates the FDevIDs to latest versions.
+* Removes EDDB references from help string documentations.
+* Updated a number of dependencies to their latest working versions
+
 Release 5.8.1
 ===
 This fixes a bug where the Cmdr/APIKey sections on Settings > EDSM would never
diff --git a/config/__init__.py b/config/__init__.py
index 9dfe2f40..c66ee87d 100644
--- a/config/__init__.py
+++ b/config/__init__.py
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ appcmdname = 'EDMC'
 # <https://semver.org/#semantic-versioning-specification-semver>
 # Major.Minor.Patch(-prerelease)(+buildmetadata)
 # NB: Do *not* import this, use the functions appversion() and appversion_nobuild()
-_static_appversion = '5.9.0-alpha0'
+_static_appversion = '5.9.0-rc1'
 _cached_version: Optional[semantic_version.Version] = None
 copyright = '© 2015-2019 Jonathan Harris, 2020-2023 EDCD'