Skype Autostart Problem

This little post is about a problem I had with getting Skype to autostart. However, if you want to STOP Skype from autostarting, just skip to the last paragraph.

Ever since a recent upgrade (I'm currently on 4.2.0.187, and about to upgrade to latest version), Skype hasn't been starting when Windows 7 x64 starts.

Looking at msconfig, I could see the following startup entry:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\\Phone\Skype.exe" /nosplash /minimized
Note the \\ where there should only be \

To fix this, open regedit and browse to:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
Then edit the value for the key by double clicking on it, and remove one of the slashes before Phone\Skype.exe...

How to stop Skype (or any program) from autostarting:

If Skype is autostarting and you want to stop that from happening, simply delete the entry for Skype under 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

Related articles

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• Skype Explains Outage In-Depth (mashable.com)
• China Rules Skype Illegal. Tell Me Something New. (chinalawblog.com)
• A Game of Clue: What Killed Skype (zdnet.com)