Clean Skype

Skype is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application that allows users to talk and make phone calls over the Internet for free. Sounds good doesn’t it? The dirty little secret about Skype is that when you agree to the user license, you are agreeing to let Skype use your bandwidth and your PC’s processing power. As a result, your PC becomes part of their peer to peer network and performance could degrade. Your PC is now allowing for third party relays of phone calls, chats and instant messaging and gobbling up resources at lightning speed.

Because of this, many large organizations and universities have banned Skype from their networks. In addition to the resources that Skype eats up, Skype also presents numerous security risks to the network.

Another problem is the problem inherent with peer to peer applications, security. While Skype itself purports to be clean of malware the fact that numerous computers are sharing resources and crossing firewalls opens the door to potential risks.

You’ll find that stopping Skype from using your resources isn’t the easiest task. You can’t simply stop Skype from automatic startup and it always re-loads on each reboot.

Right clicking the Skype icon in the system tray will allow you to quit Skype however that merely closes the interface. Skype continues to use your Internet connection as needed. Simply stopping Skype doesn’t stop it from hogging your bandwidth and you’ll find yourself frustrated to no end unless you clean Skype for good.

You can remove Skype from your machine by going to the Control Panel and choosing Add and Remove Programs. Wait as the list populates then find Skype in your list of removable programs. Remove Skype. Sometimes even uninstalling isn’t good enough.

You can use a product such as SkypeKiller to remove Skype from your system or your entire network. This is a freeware product that allows you to easily clean Skype from your network based on decisions you make. For example, you may only want to remove it from workstations or on certain machines. This software is a good solution for large networks because it takes the tedious steps of manual removal away and all machines can be cleaned at once.

In addition, you can schedule regular SkypeKiller scans to rid the network of freshly re-installed installations of Skype.

Another Skype related problem is that many malicious threats are posing as Skype. Emails with worms, Trojans and viruses are sent with information about Skype enticing users to click the attached document for more information. For this reason, as well as the fact that many spyware applications can help you rid your PC of Skype, we recommend an anti-virus and anti-spyware solution.

We’ve evaluated many of these programs in order to bring you recommendations of the best products on the market today. Be sure to browse our product reviews to find a complete solution for securing your PC after you’ve rid your system of Skype.