How to Uninstall Skype and Its Components Completely

Skype is a communication program allows you to online chat with people all around the world, you can also use it make free calls from anywhere you want. Here is the tutorial of how to correctly install and fully uninstall Skype from your computer.

Installation instruction

• Double click the setup file to open the install wizard
• Select the language you want, click “I agree – Next” button
• In the next window, click to select ‘Install Skype click to call’ and click Continue button. (If you don’t want to install Skype click to call, simply ignore the option).
• Wait until the process finish.
• Now enter your account name and password and you’ll be able to start using Skype.

Removal instruction – How to completely uninstall Skype

Please note that Skype can not be removed through Windows All Program menu as there is no uninstall option available, to thoroughly uninstall Skype, make sure to carefully follow the below instruction:

Part 1: Uninstall Skype from Control Panel.

• Close the current opening Skype program, right click on the icon at the task bar, click Quit.

• Open Control Panel from Start menu.
• Open Add/Remove program in the Control Panel.
• Select Skype and click Remove button.

• The system will prompt you “are you sure you want to remove Skype 6.1 from your system?”, Click Yes to confirm and start the removal.

• The removal will be finished in a few seconds.

If you also installed Skype click to call, and want to remove it as well, do the following steps:
Back to Add/Remove program.

• Highlight Skype click to call in the program list, and click Remove button.

• Click Yes in the prompt and the removal will be started.

Part 2: Remove leftover files and registry entries.

• Click Start menu, open Windows search tool.
• Select ‘All files and folders’.
• Enter Skype in the search field and hit Search button.
• Click Alt + A to select all the found leftover files & folders.

• Right click on one of them, select Delete in the appeared menu.
• Press Windows + R key together.
• Type in regedit and click OK to open Registry Editor
• Navigate the branch tree by using the “+” sign.
• Find out the below registry entries, and delete them all:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Skype
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Skype\Phone
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Skype\Toolbars
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Skype
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Skype\Installer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Skype\Updater

Note: Considering that registry is a critical component of Windows, in order to avoid system problems caused by mistaken deletion, we suggest you to create a backup for the registry before deleting any registry item.

If you failed to uninstall Skype, or encounter uninstall error during the removal, please download Max Uninstaller and follow the below instruction to perform the removal again, which will definitely save your time and energy.

Uninstall Skype by using Max Uninstaller

Max Uninstaller is a professionally designed uninstaller tool, it is able to uninstall nearly all kinds of Windows software/application/game completely within clicks. Its unique uninstall algorithm is able to handle any situation. You may refer to the below demonstration of how Max Uninstaller work to uninstall Skype completely and automatically.

Uninstall steps:

• Click here to download Max Uninstaller, run the setup file to install it.
• Launch MU through its icon, locate and select Skype in the program interface and click ‘Run Analysis’ button.
• After the components analysis, click ‘Complete Uninstall’to start the standard removal.
• Click ‘Scan Leftovers’ button to conduct a full scan on your computer for program leftover.
• Click ‘Delete Leftovers’and Max Uninstaller remove all the leftovers it found.
• Click OK to finish the process.
• To uninstall Skype click to call, just repeat the above steps.