As many of you know, I've only recently upgraded to Windows 7, having seen Windows 8 in "action" and deciding I loathed it. That said, I'm trying to help a friend with Windows 8 get access to Skype. Windows 8 apparently includes the Skype app. Great, right? Nope. Skype refused to recognize the username. "Skype can't connect now" message...for days. So I figured uninstall and reinstall, yeah? Uninstalled, downloaded the latest Skype software and...it sits in the box on the desktop and won't open. I click open and get the standard "Would you like to install Skype?" message, click "yes" and...nothing...happens. Skype site isn't helpful, and we know how "helpful" the Microsoft site is. Even "Microsoft for Dummies" couldn't help here. I've downloaded other software on this particular laptop with no problem. WTF is wrong here? Is W8 pitching a hissy because "Well, we gave you the app and you had to go and delete it and everything! "? I'm stumped. Suggestions welcome.
Look at the Skype startup screen CAREFULLY when you start up. Microsoft (%^$#@# be their name) wants you to login with a Microsoft account, NOT with your old Skype username...BUT you can use your old username and password if you click the right thing... Hang on a moment and I'll see if I can get a screen shot...
Click on this and you can login with your old Skype username/password. I was incredibly pissed off the first time this tripped me up... I DON'T WANT TO GET A MICROSOFT ACCOUNT, I WANT TO LOG ONTO ^&$#@& SKYPE!!!
Can't even get to that screen. (Maybe it was there before I uninstalled the original Skype, but I missed it.) All I've got now is the little box on the desktop that the download came in: Right click: Open Little pop-up: "Do you want to install Skype? Yes/No" Click: Yes And...nuthin.
Same problem with the download you gave me, Paladin. I download, click Install, little circle thing goes around for five seconds and...nada. Windows 8 hates me. I quit.
There's some tips here and alternate installers: http://winsupersite.com/skype/modern-and-desktop-windows-versions-skype-updated
Windows 8 hates everyone. It was born from hate. It is hate. The Dark Side isn't some abstract philosophical meme. It's a real thing. It lives, it writhes, it hisses, it is a cancer of Hell itself, and it has a form. And that form is... Windows.
I believe the memo Bill Gates sent his lackeys to make Windows 8 was a doodle of the interface, and off to the side "cuz fuck 'em, that's why!!! ".
