Although initially in Skype 8 was not available feature of photographing the interlocutor during the video call, thanks to user feedback in the new Skype developers returned this feature. However, now it works a little differently, and those who are accustomed to the Skype classic may experience some difficulties, so this guide is dedicated to them.

In Skype classic, users could delete the entire history, but could not delete a conversation with single contact. In Skype 8, vice versa — you can delete one conversation, but you can not delete the whole story. Basically, I like the new approach, although it would be more correct to give users both ffeatures.

In the classic Skype, you could rename contacts with the F2 key or “Right-click → Rename”. The new Skype also has this feature, although the process has become a bit complicated.

I like programs that do not take up space on the taskbar and can be minimized to the system tray (of course, at the same time continuing to work). Like in classical Skype, the new Skype supports this function, although it is located elsewhere and is named differently.

By default, unlike classic Skype, the new Skype shows the list of conversations in the sidebar, not the list of contacts. For this reason, some users can not display only the contacts that are "online".

After the new Skype became a public release, users began asking questions: where to find a “usual action” from the old Skype or how to perform it. Since I'm tired of repeating the same thing (well, not everyone likes to read previous comments), I decided to compile a list of features here that are not yet available in the new Skype. Also, I'll try to answer the most popular questions about finding features from the classic Skype in the new Skype and performing them.

When the new Skype (that is, version 8 or higher) was released, users found that the program no longer supported the command line parameters that allowed to start several accounts at the same time or to create a portable Skype. In fact, not everything is as sad as it seems, and at the request of users, I decided to tell about the parameters of the command line in the new Skype. As a matter of fact, I planned to collect more information first and only then publish the article, but since they have already switched to the new Skype or are planning to do it, I'll have to tell only what I know and checked by myself (at the same time, other useful information may also come up).

Sometimes users are surprised to find that their money from Skype is gone, and the balance is no longer displayed in the interface of the program. Since no one likes to lose money, in this guide I’ll tell you how to reactivate it and return it to your account.

First of all, it should be noted that the money “disappears” from the program interface if you don’t use paid services within 180 days (for example, you don’t make calls to landlines or send paid SMS messages). At the end of this period, the money “freezes” for an indefinite period of time (in other words, it is disabled, blocked or deactivated). The good news is that it can be “unfrozen” at any time.

In this tutorial, I want to tell you, how to reset the settings of Skype for Windows. This is useful when you need to return all the default settings (for example, if the program has stopped working properly due to incorrect settings). Just note that resetting the settings, though it often helps to resume Skype’s functioning, is not a panacea for all errors.

Portable programs (also known as portative or standalone) are programs that work without the need for installation and store all the necessary settings in the same place where the executable file is located. Due to this, portable programs can be stored and launched on removable media (for example, on USB flash drives).

By and large, Skype for Windows also supports portable mode, and in this article I want to show you how to make a portable Skype by yourself using an official installer. Also, I have written a ready-made script that allows you to create and run portable Skype.

In my opinion, the most unpleasant and only undeniable shortcoming of the latest versions of Skype is impossibility of making video calls on older processors without the support of the SSE2 instruction set. In order to help such users to enjoy video calls on older computers again, I decided to write a guide on installing version 6.1.999.130 – the latest version that supports video on processors without SSE2. Of course, instead of this version you can use any other, but it’s this one that I use as an example.

Users of the old Skype accounts can transform them in the Microsoft accounts. Also, they have the opportunity to combine Skype and Microsoft accounts. As a rule, this process is optional, but there are cases, when for the use of Skype you must get a Microsoft account without fail. And as you have guessed, in this walkthrough I’ll show you how to do it.

Skype for Windows stores in the profile folder such data as the history of the correspondence, received files, settings and photos (frames) made on Skype with a webcam. Deleting this folder will lead to the irreversible loss of all these data in Skype. Given this and the fact that the probability of losing data is very high, I decided to write about creating a backup of profile in Skype for Windows and restoring data if necessary.

If you have problems with Skype for Windows and want to ask for help, it is very important to tell the full version of Windows and OS bit-capacity. It is not enough to say “I have Windows 10”, as in the majority of cases this information is useless.

Skype Wi-Fi is a special service that allows you to connect to the Internet via public pay hotspots Wi-Fi, using the money from your Skype account. Thus, when you are in another country or in another city, and you need access to the network, and there are no free points of Wi-Fi nearby — turn on the service Skype Wi-Fi and use the Internet, paying for every minute of the time, spent on the Internet (depending on the tariff value, the signal strength and connection speed, you choose yourself which of the available hotspots suits you best).

It turns out that not all users that use Microsoft accounts know that they still have a Skype username (also known as “Skype login”). Of course, not everyone needs to know his username, since the email address or phone number is enough for authorization and searching contacts. However, in some cases you still need to have a Skype username (for example, if you want to use the Skype button or share username, without disclosing your email or phone number).

The Internet Explorer browser is a very important component of the Windows operating system, and operability of many programs (including Skype for Windows) depends on it. If the Internet Explorer browser stops working correctly, respectively, programs that depend on it cease to work properly too.

As a rule, in most cases, errors occur due to incorrect browser settings – either due to the user's fault, or because of other applications that changed settings without the user’s knowledge. In any case, in order to eliminate such errors, you should reset all your browser settings and thus restore their default value.

Periodically, I see complaints that during conversations “Skype suppresses computer sounds” (i.e., the sound becomes quieter or disappears at all). Moreover, the sound decreases in all other programs and games, except to Skype. Since it only happens during a conversation on Skype, most people thought that this program is to blame, and therefore they try to find in the Skype settings, how to remove sound attenuation and forbid Skype to do what it is not supposed to.

But, as in fact not Skype, but the operating system automatically changes the sound settings, the majority of users cannot remove sound reduction and, cursing the developers, try to find in the Internet, why it happens and how to disable it. To facilitate the search, I decided to answer these questions and teach you how to prevent sound suppression during the calls.

Programs which have been translated their UI into several languages, have a common “problem” — if in some way the language has been changed to an unknown one (for example, Chinese or Arabic), it is very difficult for an inexperienced user to change language back to English. And since the language is not known, and all the letters look like incomprehensible hieroglyphs, you will have to change the language of the program at random. And as you understand, this “problem” exists on Skype too.

But don’t worry, with the help of this guide you will learn how to change the language on Skype from Arabic to English without any effort and knowledge of this language. Why Arabic? It's very simple — Arabic is the first language in the list of Skype, and most often it’s automatically switched to it (see below, why). So, I want to show you some ways to change Arabic to English on Skype. As a rule, these methods will work for any unknown language.

After releasing the version 6.14.143, it has been announced that from that day the new versions of Skype for iOS will only work on iOS 8 and older. For owners of devices with iOS 7 or younger, the old version 6.13.158 will remain available in the AppStore which will be offered instead of the latest version. Of course, it’s very sad news (especially for owners of older devices), but let’s focus on the problem because of which these users generally cannot install even older versions of Skype.

Most of users of the Skype program use only the basic functions and enjoy them, not knowing that this program, though free, supports much more interesting and useful features. It is for this reason that I have written this article — that all our readers knew about the commands in the Skype chat and could take advantage of them. I hope that with time I will be able to tell you about all the secrets and hidden features of this program, but for now, I offer you a description of all the commands available in the Skype chat.