Sky History, a Skype plugin, adds better chat history and call log management to the voice over IP software. Installation of the plugin should not be problematic, just remember to accept the integration in the Skype software after installation. If you do not, the software cannot access the data.

The application sits in the system tray on start up. A click opens its interface where you can select data based on users or time. Search and filtering options are provided as well to quickly find specific conversations or logs.

Both make it easier to find specific chat partners, messages or events. The user listing is divided into data specific chats as well as a listing of all Skype contacts. The calendar listing on the other hand can be used to display all conversations on a specific date and time.

A right-click on a message displays a context menu with options to delete that message from the Skype chat history or to bookmark it. All selected messages can be deleted or bookmarked. The deleting is obviously more comfortable than deleting Skype messages manually. Bookmarks are handy to quickly jump to important messages.

Another interesting option is the ability to display the chat history of multiple contacts at once. The plugin’s options can be used to change color schemes, for instance to highlight contact names or chat headers. There is also an option to block the export of a contact’s chat history.

Sky History is a useful plugin for Skype users who want more control over the program’s chat history. Especially the abilities to delete select Skype messages and to search all messages for specific text come in handy.

Skype users can download Sky History from the official website. The program is compatible with all recent versions of Skype and the Microsoft Windows operating system. (via)

Problems will arise however if you want to remove the chat history with one contact from the list. This is not possible in Skype. We mentioned a manual way of clearing the Skype chat history for one contact but that was a rather complicated way of achieving this. Our reader Primoz mentioned a program that he wrote in the comments that can be used to automatically clear the chat history with one contact from Skype chat.

The program is completely portable and works with both Skype 3 and Skype 4. Skype has to be closed to run it. All the user needs to do to clear the chat with one contact from Skype chat is to pick a user account and enter the name of the chat partner. The software program will automatically remove the chat history with that client from Skype and leave the rest of the chat history in its current stage.

Primoz suggests the following steps to run the program:

• Close skype
• Create backup if something goes wrong for folder \Documents and Settings\{win username}\Application Data\Skype\{skype username}
• Run application (.net 2.0 framework is required)
• Input skype username and contact username and click remove button.
• Run Skype again

Backing up the Skype databases is an important step in the procedure to avoid loosing data if something goes wrong. Skype Chat Remove can be downloaded directly from the Skype forums.

The first release is compatible with Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008. The main benefit is that one does not have to switch between Visual Studio and Skype (Chat) all the time when developing an application and chatting at the same time. Please note that chatting could also be project related which would make sense in my opinion.

This would provide an excellent way to copy and paste code comfortably to another user who is working on the same project. Selected code can be send to another use with the Send button of the add-in.

The developer is providing two versions of the Skype add-in, one for Visual Studio 2005 and the other for the 2008 version of Visual Studio. Windows XP users install the software by double-clicking the StudioSkype.msi executable while Windows Vista users have to right-click setup.exe and select to run the file as an administrator.

The new window is available in the View > Other Window > Skype menu in Visual Studio.