Time for Skype to stop installing affiliate software

This evening when I checked my Skype for missed messages and was presented with the request from GameXNGO.exe, which apparently wanted to use my Skype:

I chose to deny it access, since I don't need it and at no stage did I choose to install it. I'm sure there are plenty of Skype users who'd be more than happy to have random software forced on them like this, and who knows? It mightn't even be all that bad.

If you're one of the people who's happy to try it out - go ahead. If you're not, then you might be wondering what the hell it is, and what you can do to get it off your system.

First I searched my disks for the program, and found it here:

C:\ProgramData\GameXN\GameXNGO.exe (on Windows 7)

Then I searched for it on Google. Turns out it belongs to EasyBits Go, an affiliate partner of Skype, who provide their gaming platform, which I don't actually use. I'm sure it's great, but I don't really have the time for it, and I don't appreciate having any software forced on me - that's a crapware or even malware kind of behaviour.

Next, I checked in Control Panel > Programs and Features, and there it was:

Thankfully, this was easily removed.

If you're not sure what else you might have kicking about on your system, courtesy of Skype, you might want to go to Skype > Tools > Options > Advanced > Manage other programs' access to Skype, and look at what's listed there:

You'll notice that not only is GameXNGO there, but also EasyBitsGO - which belongs to the same company, and was offered about 6 months ago. That one required a special uninstaller to be downloaded from EasyBits, which was pretty sneaky. Apparently, although I somehow missed it at the time (must have been something to do with being in the middle of exams ;), this one caused a bit of a stir, and a lot of angry customers threatened to leave Skype over it.

Thankfully, in my case at least, it seems that this one isn't quite as much of a pain - I hope the same is true for the majority of people.