SkypeLauncher

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on August 22, 2011

Do you use more than one Skype account? One developer grew frustrated with the limitations of trying to use his multiple Skype accounts on one machine in one session, so he wrote Skype Launcher, a simple piece of freeware that automatically signs in to multiple Skype accounts with a single click. It automatically detects accounts that are already signed in to Skype and only launches offline accounts.

Skype Launcher opened with the Skype Launcher Configuration utility, to which we added our Skype accounts by entering each account's name and password in a pop-up. A check box let us choose whether to start Skype Launcher as soon as we logged in. Clicking More expanded the interface with a panel full of Advanced Settings, most of which govern how Skype Launcher behaves. We could also click USB to send our data to an external storage device. When we'd finished adding our accounts and selecting our options, we clicked Save, which closed the configuration tool. However, we could reopen it at any time from Skype Launcher's Start Menu folder.

Once we'd set up Skype Launcher with our accounts, it automatically opened them for us so we could enter our password and log in (our preferences) when we clicked Skype Launcher's icon. Skype Launcher automatically checked for updates, too, and also sought an alternative log-on method when a network glitch kicked back one of our accounts during sign-in. We tried Skype Launcher with only two Skype accounts, but the program seems able to handle as many accounts as you can. In any case, Skype Launcher is a good call.