Running two different Skype accounts on one Windows computer is possible, and has been explained several times in the past, see for instance the explanation of “Peter Mad Raven” here. However, this implied that you should have a computer with multiple accounts.Today I was starting my spare laptop (Windows XP). My Skype didn’t start and I thought: “Hell, the kids disabled the automatic launching of Skype”. Therefore I started Skype (the latest 4.0 beta version) manually. I didn’t notice however that the startup was still going on. And all of a sudden I had two instances of Skype running on “one Windows user id”. I only got a message that I already was logged in, but I could use the second Skype client to log i
n into another Skype account. Interesting, I didn’t know! I could chat from one account to another on the same computer and even call! Not very useful of course.But what IS useful, is that it seems to be possible to run two instances (or perhaps more) on one computer with only one Windows user account. So, if your partner has a Skype account, and you have yourself one, you can run both on the same computer without bothering to enable different Window accounts. Does somebody have a trick to make this “automatic” at startup?
[Edited] Thanks to a comment of Edgaras and a correction by Vincent i learned that this is a feature. The explanation how to do it is here: Does Skype for Windows have command line options in Skype 4.0 Beta for Windows?
In fact type "/secondary" as a command-line parameter to skype.exe and this allows you to start an additional skype.exe instance. This is indeed a very nice new feature!
6 comments:
You can start as many as you wish Skype instances. Start extra instances with /secondary switch.
Command line options in Skype 4.0 Beta
Thanks a lot Edgaras.
I didn't know this. I still do not use the new beta version on my main computer. I only installed it on two "auxiliary" computers. Therefore i am NT an expert in the 4.0 version!
Again, thanks a lot!
The /secondary must be passed as command-line parameter to skype.exe, not typed in the chat window.
(I hope I'm posting correctly!)
When I first adopted Skype, I allowed any contact I knew to see me when I was online. Now I am older and wiser, I am happy for them to contact me - but much as I love them, I don't want them to know if I am online. In other words, I want Skype to act like a normal telephone - i.e. if I call someone, I don't know if they're in: I'm just calling on the off-chance they are.
Can I do this easily, or should I start a new account with a new skype id, then tell my contacts to request a contact - and respond by not allowing them to see when I am online (the second of the three options)? In this case, they should simply see a grey question mark, right?
Thanks
Hello Bibere,
Well, if you want your Skype to act as a normal telephone, just put your status in "invisible".. They will see only the grey cross icon. But tell your partner and parents, and best friends that you will do so. Then they will know they always can try to call you, like a normal phone. But honestly, i love the feature that shows who is online!
Yes, as Edgaras said, you can run as many Skype instances as you want. I accidentally stumbled upon this feature by double-clicking the Skype icon and got the option to log in twice--so I did. But I just wanted to support the fact that you can run as many accounts as you want. Just click on the modified shortcut, log in, click it again, log in, click, log in, ect.
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