Kill Skype Home Removes The Skype Home Window

I just tried to download the voice over IP software Skype from the official website to discover that I had to log in, or create an account, to do so. That was an annoyance and I decided to go to Betanews to download the software instead. I had been a Skype user before but somehow ran into a problem that shut down Skype right after start every time I would run it. After cleaning up all leftovers on the system I decided to give the program another try, which worked this time.

But instead of just opening the Skype window a second window was opened on start. Skype Home opened as a popup on Skype start. I cannot really say what it is for, maybe for advertising new features or for making Skype more social. I have no idea to be honest but know that it does not look really useful to me.

Problem is: Skype Home opens every time I start Skype. Even worse: There does not seem to be a setting to disable Skype Home from starting up with the Skype software.

That's a big usability issue right there. Andrew Worcester, fed up with clicking the close button of the Skype Home window, has created a small portable application that kills Skype Home as soon as it pops up.

Skype users basically start Kill Skype Home first before they start Skype. The application by default runs until a Skype Home window is detected. It will then close the Skype Home window and terminate itself afterwards to free up the resources on the PC.

Andrew has added a persistent mode to his application which disables the termination of the Kill Skype Home application after terminating the Skype Home popup window.

Skype needs to be run in compact view mode for the Kill Skype Home program. Users can make sure of that by clicking on the View menu entry in the menubar. If they see Default View listed there near the bottom they are running compact view.

The reason for this is the following: Skype users who are running the default view mode see only one window that combines the compact interface and Skype Home. This makes it impossible to close down only the Skype Home part of the window.

Windows users can download Kill Skype Home from Andre Worcester's website. (via)

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