Microsoft recently announced that it is going to end support for older versions of its desktop VoIP service Skype including the 6.13 version for Windows and 6.14 for Mac over the next few months.
Skype users have been asked to upgrade to a newer version of Skype – version 6.16 for Windows and version 6.18 for OS X in order to access the service before older editions are made to die.
However, the Redmond did not clearly mention as whether users running Windows XP would be able to use Skype or not.
Fortunately, Skype’s latest versions are compatible with Windows XP which means users who are yet to upgrade can still avail the VoIP service. This implies that Windows XP users will be able to use Skype for at least another year on their operating system.
The latest Skype Windows version will run on Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit versions) or Windows 8 with at least 1 GHz Processor and 256 MB RAM and an additional software DirectX v9.0 or above.
Microsoft said its decision to discontinue old versions of Skype is aimed at bringing more users to the new releases.
“As we look ahead to the future, we‘re focusing our efforts on bringing the latest and greatest to the most recent versions of Skype. As a result, we are going to retire older versions of Skype for Windows desktop (6.13 and below) as well as Skype for Mac (6.14 and below) over the next few months,” the company said.
“Don’t panic – whether you’re using Skype for Windows desktop or Skype for Mac, you can download and update to the latest version today for free. We encourage all users to update to the latest version today to continue using Skype without disruption.”
Thanks for sharing this. However, a lot of users were using the older versions of Skype (now not allowed) because they did not have service pack 3 in their Windows XP OS. Any solution for hassle-free and smooth download of SP3 for single user Windows XP?
6.18 does not support anything older than Win7 it seems and crashes at startup.
I think we need to find something else than Skype. Microsoft and their greed to force people to buy newer versions of Windows is what this is all about. I hate this crap. With so many people out there who know about making programs can someone come up with some patch or program so I can use old Skype? I will pay. I don’t want it for free. Christ!!!! Bunch of M.F’ers.
Don’t panic, my ass. Not all people have hardware to support sp3. How do you suggest that to the people whose pc are only capable of running sp2?