Skype Folder Pollution

It has been a “very very old complaint” on the Skype Forum that Skype placed some folders in the "My Documents" folder (Windows XP version), without a gentle way to move them to another place!

And version 3.0 is even worse! I am angry too :-(

But the “My Documents” folder isn’t the only place where you find Skype folders: i noticed – excluding multiple Skype accounts – 4 main places. You can probably reduce it to 3 main places if you have only one Windows XP user account!

I counted 31 folders in total, excluding the 250 folders in the “chatsync” folder! Therefore, total number of folders in my case: 281! Pfewwww!!!!! And again: this without counting the other Skype accounts folders!

Some comments on some selected folders:

1. This is a new folder with version 3.0 :-(
2. An old one, i always delete the bunch of ugly Skype avatars after the installation of a new version
3. Also an old one: i store all my Skype related stuff there
4. A new one, that i deleted, but Skype created it again, without recreating the deleted wallpapers
5. The first (1) folder with the name “Skype”
6. Plugins, also new since 3.0 i guess
7. Ooh no … i thought Skype was used mainly by business people!
8. Second (2) folder with the name “Skype”
9. A user account i never use
10. my main user account
11. I didn’t want to show the content of this folder: it contains in my case exactly 250 subfolders, i guess with my chat history in it!
12. folders of spare accounts or folders of other people who used their Skype account on my computer (this happens!)
13. third (3) folder with the name “Skype”
14. ooooh, here all the ugly Skype avatars, that i usually try to delete, are stored again!
15. and here again the wallpapers!
16. new since 3.0
17. new since 3.0 i guess

There have been some posts on the Skype Forum with a solution for moving the folders located in the “My Documents” folder, one of those here.

But the solutions should be implemented only by experienced people!

Please Skype, what i would like:

• The possibility to place the folders anywhere i want
• The possibility NOT to download avatars and wallpapers

But i am confident they will listen to the customer because it is already possible to:

• Install the Skype program file in another folder
• To “NOT” update the plugins!
• To “NOT” install the plugins for Mozilla and Internet Explorer!

This option isn’t very visible, but when you tick the “YES, I have read …” (what almost nobody reads) box in the first installation screen of the SkypeSetup software, you can click on an OPTIONS button, and choose another Skype client installation location, and untick some boxes concerning the other options!