Multiple Instances of Skype
4/29/2009
I have several Skype accounts, and being able to only log into one at a time is a problem.
I had previously used VMWare to run multiple instances of Skype. This works very well, but it is a bit overkill and consumes a lot of resources on my laptop. I had always assumed multiple instances of Skype simply was not possible. I searched and found that it is possible, however there are lot of serious problems and roadblocks especially with Skype 4.0, or if you are running Vista. Fortunately I have found a way to make it work successfully in both Skype 4.0 and Vista.
Solution 1 - Run As
As detailed here and many other sources you can run multiple instances of Skype by creating additional Windows users and forcing Skype to run under those users. This method works very well, however it does not work on Vista. With Vista, launching the second instance of Skype, even when running as a different user it just reactivates the first instance.
Solution 2 - Skype Launcher
A user has released a free utility (donations accepted and encouraged) called Skype Launcher that supports multiple instances of Skype. Later updates work with Vista, and there is a note that from version 1.3 it also works with Skype 4.0. However it does not appear to be regularly tested with the latest versions of Skype 4.0. When I tried to use it with the latest version of Skype 4.0, it causes a time out and never fills in the username and password for Skype.
Solution 3 - Secondary Option
Skype 4.0 includes a new command line option /secondary. When this option is used, Skype will allow more than one instance to run. However you need to uncheck "sign me in automatically" and log in manually twice, or save it for the first one and log in for the second one. Better, but not ideal.
Note that you cannot add command line options to the default Skype shortcut. You will need to create a new shortcut that points to the Skype application and add the command line parameter to the new short cut.
Final Solution
/secondary and runas can be combined. I configured Skype not to autostart, then I created two shortcuts in my startup group. The first is a normal shortcut pointing to skype with /secondary specified. I have specified /secondary for both shortcuts as I cannot control which Windows will start first, or even if one is started first the second one could actually execute first.
The second shortcut I configured to use the RunAs option. Then for both I specified "auto login", as this information is stored in the use profile.
Now both my Skype instances run on startup automatically and auto log in to the proper accounts.
Example
For the first instance, create a normal shortcut but add /secondary to the Target field.
For the second instance:
c:\windows\system32\RUNAS.exe /profile /user:zack /savecred "C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe /secondary"
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