Like many people I’ve been using Skype (and paying for Skype Credit) for many, many years. It’s been a highly functional, utilitarian communication tool that has stood the test of time, while programs I once cherished for their simplicity and function (ICQ, MSN) became bloated with garbage and were eventually removed from my computers.
Recently, the fine people working at Skype decided they had to jump on the “social” wagon by inserting something called “Skype Home” into Skype. This feature consists of a window which pops up each and every time Windows or Skype starts – and, best of all, in the middle of the day, while you’re working. It contains images/links and updates related to friends on various social networks. And it has no value whatsoever for me – especially not when wrapped into a communication utility that I expect to behave like a well-trained workhorse. It’s like strapping a blender to a hammer.
The worst part: There’s absolutely no way to disable it or keep it from appearing.
Even if this were a feature I liked and appreciated, I’d expect it to come with some visibility options. Perhaps people who like this sort of thing want to see it – but only at home? Maybe not a great idea to have random pictures of all your social online contacts popping up on your work computer for all to see?
In any case, I was moments away from uninstalling Skype completely. But then I found this:
It’s a nifty little app that works to close annoying window and automate the acceptance of those ever-present “are you sure you want to close that?” pop-ups. The guy who wrote it didn’t start out targeting Skype Home – his was a more general approach to automating the process of closing windows – whether they be annoying, useless or otherwise unwanted. Just so happens that it works great to close Skype Home’s annoying and useless popup. Great.
So, if you’re annoyed by Skype Home and looking for a way to get rid of it – I’d highly recommend ClickOff. And if the geniuses at Skype find a way around it – THEN it’s uninstall time.