Skype - Windows 7 64 bit problem (Solved)

I've been using Skype for almost 8 years and I was never frustrated this much. For the last 10 days I couldn't sign in to Skype on my laptop at all. I tried all the options and communicated in Skype forums but the solutions couldn't solve my problem.

Then finally I looked in to one simple 'engineer' troubleshooting. Backtrack my steps and try to see what'd have caused the problem. So I started disabling/uninstalling any programs I installed/updated.

Violaaa.. It did worked. The culprit is a small software called " FileBox eXtender"  which simplifies the windows 7 explorer actions by adding favorites & tools.

Somehow this caused the problem and the moment I disabled things're back to normal :)

In case if you are using Skype on Win 7 and have some problems the recommended steps are below.


1. Remove "shared.xml" file

• First go to explorer and make sure you are not hiding any files. 

For this you need to open My Computer or Control Panel. Go to Folder options and Check the button "show hidden folers and files" as shown in the screen shot right next.

• Go to your Skype install folder

In explorer go to the Skype installed folder. Which means C\users\'your user id'\appdata\roaming\skype. If your windows is not installed in C then you need to go to that specific Drive.

Delete "shared.xml" file. If you are running Skype then you need to exit Skype first. Don't worry the xml file be recreated when you start Skype

• Restart Skype

2. Change "Port" number


I don't suggest this unless Solution 1 didn't solve the problem. Open Skype and when it's signing in quickly open the "Options". You can only see "connection settings".

There if you don't see any port (problem with Skype 64bit version 5.8) then enter any random port which is higher than 30,000. Theoretically you can use any port higher than 1024 but keep it high.
Also select the "use 80 & 443 option".

Selecting the UnPn is optional and up to individual. My case I do select that..

Restart Skype.

Above solutions did solved my problems on 2 of my Win 7 laptops and the recent being with 5.8
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Skype Version: 5.8.0.156
OS: Win 7 Ultimate 64bit
Browser: IE9
Event Viewer Errors - None
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