Skype 4.2 Beta for Windows
Skype 4.2 Beta for Windows is here.
We have put long working hours into fine tuning the Skype client for you to incorporate your feedback and introduce new features to it.
We have introduced in this version Skype Access which is a nifty feature to pay easily for the Wifi hotspots usage with the Skype credits.
Start downloading it now and keep reading, but please remember that it is a beta version which means that you may experience some hiccups on the way on using it. Please let us know if any of these happen with commenting this blog post, discuss things on our forums or submit issue reports on our issue tracker, see issue reporting guide.
In addition to this we have been fine tuning Skype to make your life a bit easier around.
First of all we have made new account sign-up flow much more informative and easier. It let’s you to fill your profile straight in the sign up flow and then enter to the What’s New Guide to get to know more about Skype and to import your contacts. For Windows 7 users we will pre-fill some areas for you already thanks to the Windows 7 location API.
With Call Quality Indicator we will let you know before making the call about the expected call quality, so that you can be absolutely sure before making all your important calls in Skype. For this we introduced the Call Quality Indicator. It’s a small button on your conversations area, clicking on it will show to you if all is well with your computer speed, microphone, speakers, webcam and it let’s you to test internet connection speed between you and the other person.
We have introduced a Client Alerts in Skype. Now we are delivering all notifications in Skype to you about your account status and payments, instead of sending them over e-mail. Your friends contact requests will appear there also to be always on your sight.
We have also improved our support for Windows 7. Now we handle the new taskbar behaviour and support the jump list feature. We have also in there a support for audio ducking feature when you are making audio calls to make sure they go smooth as silk.
Last but not least we have implemented a keyboard tapping noise removal from calls and improved video calling stability and quality.
See full fixed and known issues list.
your spam management is still a huge problem anybody can still search trough the directory and report anybody they want for abuse.
It does not make any sense. I got 2 account blocked like that without any reason
i was not even chatting to anybody!!!
Why do you read the security forum it is full of people who got banned for no reason.
What about:
1) offline messaging
2) receiving messages on all skypes loging in with same user (for now I have a “server” always running in office, but when I login in Skype with my laptop I did not get the messages I have received in office)
3) Improving visibility of users that are in multiuser chat (4+ people in windowed mode)
Tnx.
in Windows 7, now have Skype showing twice in the taskbar, once as a full taskbar icon and second in a Notification Area Icon,
how to fix, or do we have to wait till the next release, to get the full icon to be hidden
I would like video conference.
Please, please, please…
is there a possibility to add LINES between user posts in chat? Like in Skype 3. It’s very hard to track what user writes. At least as an option to choose.
Secondly, when choosing emoticon can you add option to have white background, also like in old Skype. On black it’s difficult to see full visual representation of the emoticon.
Thank you!!!
Skype 3 was more user friendly in chat mode. Many users are stuck with 3.x because of this.
I’ve just tried 4.1. I’ve also read some posts about 4.2 beta.
If I choose “video in separate window”, great, but please give me the ability to minimise it. There isn’t any way to do this. If I close it, please give me an easy way to get that same window back. There’s NO easy way.
We’ve been asking this since 4.x alpha.
Come on!
Oh well,back to 3.8.x Way superior.
I agree with all the comments – Skype 3.x was superior in every functional sense. Maybe it’s not so sophisticated and advanced under the hood but the outer usability is worse, especially in chat mode. Almost 90% of my contacts degraded from Skype 4 back to v3.8 because of that. I don’t understand why Skype ignores these statistics.
Will a newer version of Skype bring back, with a parental password of course, SkypeMe® mode?!?!?!
Thanks!
Yes, true, there is no SkypeMe mode (although I never used that). But there is no Ignore Call when somebody undesirable keep calling. All you can choose is reject or answer or to kill the soundspeakers. So many features are gone from old Skype and I wonder why.
We would like to use Skype for multi-site meetings, but until you add 3+ video conferencing, this tool will never bve able to be used seriously by businesses. This feature would also be useful for connecting families. When will you be adding this?
We would like to use Skype for multi-site meetings, but until you add 3+ video conferencing, this tool will never bve able to be used seriously by businesses. This feature would also be useful for connecting families. When will you be adding this?
With this new skype4.2 i do have popup baloon it says Skype.exe file corupt.
I had to delete skype and canot use anymore , because of that pop up baloon.Help
I am using Windows 2000 Pro and Amcap with my web cam. I have tried several version and now have 4.2.0.141 Beta and can not get the camera to work with Skype. It gives me error message 0X800705AA Unknown Error. I used this same set up on another computer running XP and it worked OK. The camera is plugged directly into the USB port, DirectX 9 is current. The camera works fine running the amcap program. Can anone help me.
Bob
@robert.varone1 you should upgrade your pc or windows because of compability issues that arise with skype and windows 2000 seriously Bob upgrade
What about bringing back SPEED DIAL? There have been so many posts about this. I have reverted back to an older version of Skype in order to preserve speed dial capability.
I will not upgrade to any version of Skype that does not have speed dial capability in it.
It looks like Skype is placing too much emphasis on instant messaging and video chat. Why not keep the core business of cheap telephone calls and leave the instant messaging and video chat to Microsoft and Yahoo?
Or, how about this: Provide two versions of Skype; one that only does telephony and another that has the bloated functionality including IM and video chat.
Speed dial is the most important feature to me. Sadly, this upgrade dropped it.
Skype 4 sucks a** you should stop development of 4.2 and redo your strategy and make version 5.0 hate the new Skype 3.8 Rules!!!!
While I may not be completely familiar with everything Skype, 1 thing I miss is the SkypeCasts which on version 4.x I believe are now Group Conversations. These are all fine for private chat and calling among friends, but what I, and I’m sure many people, would really like to have Public Conversations on Skype 4.x with calling included, similarly to the idea of SkypeCasts, but being with an option to type/post to the chatlog or join a call in progress. Maybe a sort of built-in directory would be nice, or perhaps a brand new directory on the website for Skype 4.x users. Any form of public chat or conversation that Skype 4.x users can easily access again would be much appreciated. A while ago I was reading a forum topic dating back from years ago about Public IMs in Skype 4, and only finnig an endless list of do-this do-that links and people running into multiple failed attempts of resolving it, and I’m sure many who aren’t tech-smart don’t want that type of confusion. Please, is there any way, anytime soon we can have a feature of sorts be brught to Skype 4.x??
While I may not be completely familiar with everything Skype, 1 thing I miss is the SkypeCasts which on version 4.x I believe are now Group Conversations. These are all fine for private chat and calling among friends since you can add the people you want to invite, but what I, and I’m sure many people, would really like to have Public Conversations on Skype 4.x with calling included, similarly to the idea of SkypeCasts, but being with an option to type/post to the chatlog or join a call in progress. Maybe a sort of built-in directory would be nice, or perhaps a brand new directory on the website for Skype 4.x users. Any form of public chat or conversation that Skype 4.x users can easily access again would be much appreciated. The main problem is that on Skype 4.x nobody can enter a room unless they’re added to it and it’s frustrating not to have the option of Public rooms anymore! A while ago I was reading a forum topic dating back from years ago about Public IMs in Skype 4, and only finnig an endless list of do-this do-that links and people running into multiple failed attempts of resolving it, and I’m sure many who aren’t tech-smart don’t want that type of confusion. Please, is there any way, anytime soon we can have a feature of sorts be brught to Skype 4.x??
regarding to all your experience about skype 4.2 beta and windows 7. are they compatible with?
WTF???? No chance to minimize (as was before) by pressing X to notification area?
U f.. kidding me?
i had windows vista and skype worked great, i then upgraded to windows 7 and ever since skype in unpredictable. i never know if it is going to work or not. it will sign on but to others i am off line then 30 sec into being logged in my computer tells me that skype is not responding. i have tried both skype beta 4.2 and the regular newer skype. can someone please tell me what is happening?
About the Windows 7 support… as some of the guys have noted above, by pressing the X button Skype stays in the taskbar instead of going to the notification area, which is kind of annoying. Please fix that.
I second the comment about skype on the taskbar. I run Windows 7, and it doesn’t minimize to the system tray like 4.1 and earlier. This is annoying in a major way!
Sorry to say that I also find the taskbar behaviour very annoying. If this is an MS-driven thing, why not have this behaviour as default but allow advanced users to enable minimise to tray in the options? It’s a massive distraction from the other very positive developments in this beta.
I am new to Skype and set up an account on my new Vaio laptop with Windows 7 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Sometime after I set up the account a Skype window popped up and said I needed to download an executable file and add some file to my contacts to avoid a fatal error. I thought this was possibly a “phishing” incident so I did not download file. I figured the file would have been included in the download. I used Skype once and everything worked great. I closed out of it and then a Skype window popped up 5 min later with sign in and password. I closed out and then I immediately got the blue screen of death. I turned off computer and got a black screen that said no operating system found.I could not get beyond “no operating system found”.Since it was a new computer I was luckily able to take the computer back and get a replacement. I have serious concerns about Skype and don’t know if there is a problem with Windows 7 and am wondering if I was supposed to download the add-on executable file and add the contact. Has anyone else had a computer totally crash because of Skype?
Skype on the taskbar in win 7 also annoys me that much ive now gone back to v4.1 I hope they will sort this out. thanks.
Noone can see my up to date status that you can write in the litle white box next to your picture. Plus they can’t even see my pic. Plus in my hubby’s status it says something different then what it says in my contacts next to his name. WTHeck is going on. How do I fix it? I have been to the help and nothing tells me how to fix it. Already deleted him and added him again and still the same way!!! HELP Me!!!
Noone can see my up to date status that you can write in the litle white box next to your picture. Plus they can’t even see my pic. Plus in my hubby’s status it says something different then what it says in my contacts next to his name. WTHeck is going on. How do I fix it? I have been to the help and nothing tells me how to fix it. Already deleted him and added him again and still the same way!!! HELP Me!!!
Why is there no customer support for skype?
I paid my yearly subscription about 4 months ago and still have not recieved anything…
Having only volunteers on skype is useless in my case as only adminsitration can fix my problem. As skype is a owned and controlled by seemingly no one this makes things incredibly frustrating.
Agreeing with previous posters, please enable an option to minimize to the system tray in Windows 7. Without this, it’s very annoying.
I don’t understand why Skype is not listening to it’s user.
This is the new version and it’s just the same as 4.1.
THANK YOU SKYPE FOR LISTENING TO YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS!!
Fuck I’m getting upset, there are 1000 people daily writing how much they dislike the new interface and Skype developers don’t get it straight!!!
Want 3.8 on Windows? –> http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=511431
It’s great that you are working on Windows 7 compatibility, and for the most part it is the same or better, but I am going to downgrade if you don’t make it minimize to the system tray. At least give us an option to make it minimize to tray instead of the taskbar. Or maybe I’ll just quit Skype and go with some other provider, there are several options and some are even free.
I also will downgrade if minimize to tray doesn’t come back
Why no Speed Dial? I’m with the others, now I need it for integration with my PSTN setup. Posts are great, but no responses make it appear to be a waste of time?
Just downgraded. Also can’t stand the minimize problem.
Just wanted to add my voice to the minimize problem. Ugh.
I also want to speak up here, I cannot use Skype unless it minimizes to the system tray. It is way to annoying and differs from every other application that hides itself in the system tray.
SYSTEM TRAY SOLUTION
Hey everybody, about the System tray notification and the problem occurring with Skype 4.2 with Windows 7 users, i had the same problem.
Although, i am not a technician and know nothing about why and how, but i have figured out a way to overcome this.
Go to your skype icon on the desktop, write clic on it, and chose the compatibility tag. Make it compatible with windows vista and press ok to exit.
Then turn off your skype completely and then turn it on again, when you clic on “x” to close it will be on system tray. When you clic “-” it will still minimize as usual.
Please don’t ask me why, i don’t know that much about computer, but if any of the expert sees my comment please feel free to explain to me how did it happen.
Thank you antoineabdou, I was getting frustrated with the minimising issue but your solution has worked for me.
I please the authors to solve the problem of minimize application to system tray.
Just discovered this – it is so annoying!!
Will download – where can I get the previous version?
Where can I find the spec 4.2 of SKYPE4.2 to have a good match for HD 720p webcam?
Or do you have related info to explain which webcam is a good match for SKYPE 4.2?
Thanks to antoineabdou for the great solution to the systems tray issue, it was driving me mad as well. How do people think of solutions like this?
WTF with this auto-update crap. I want 4.1. 4.2 sucks. You have to add people to your contacts just to respond to a question. I don’t want these idiots seeing my personal info just because they have a support question for me. Change it back!