Howto make a Skype USB Phone

Installation on a USB Stick

The manual way

To install Skype on a USB stick (or any other memory device), you need (best the latest) Skype.exe from any other PC on which Skype is already installed.

Plug in the USB- stick

change into the stick- root drive (e.g. g:\)

create a new directory „Skype“

change into that new „Skype“- directory

create a new directory „Data“

copy the available skype.exe program from where it is into that „Skype“- directory (normally is stored on a PC under „C:\Documents and Settings\<Your_username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe“)

* in case you want to copy your already existing Skype settings onto your stick, copy the content of your „C:\Documents and Settings\<Your_username>\Application Data\Skype\“- folder into the new created „Data“- folder To start Skype with the correct start parameters:

open your notepad

enter the following text:

@echo off start skype.exe /datapath:„Data“ /removable

save that text as StartSkype.bat into the „Skype“ folder of the USB stick

Done: To start Skype correctly, don't start Skype directly, but start StartSkype.bat instead

The automatic way

Save the following HTA- Script as Skype2Stick.hta on your PC and start the file with a doubleclick. It will do the steps descriped above automatically:

<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Skype- Stick- Installer by S. Koehler :-)</TITLE> <HTA:APPLICATION ID="SkypeStickInst" APPLICATIONNAME="SkypeStickInst" border="thin" borderstyle="static" caption="yes" contextmenu="yes" icon="car.ico" innerborder="no" maximizebutton="no" minimizebutton="no" navigable="yes" scroll="auto" scrollflat="yes" selection="yes" showintaskbar="no" singleinstance="yes" sysmenu="yes" version="1.0" windowState="normal" /> <SCRIPT Language="VBScript"> option explicit dim SkypePath dim ScriptPath dim strPrograms dim strSystem dim CodemeterPath dim DestDir Dim wshShell, fso, WshEnv dim arrFiles, skdsfiles, sysfiles ' onClick-Routine für den "Installdir"-Button sub Browse Dim aShell, shFld Set aShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application") ' Den Standard-Ordner-Dialog anzeigen set shFld = aShell.BrowseForFolder(0, "Select Rootdirectory for Installation", 65) if not (shFld Is nothing) then ' Abbrechen gedrückt? installDir.innerText = shFld.Self.Path end if DeEnableUI end sub function copyf(filename, destdir) If fso.FileExists(filename) Then fso.CopyFile filename, DestDir If Err <> 0 Then MsgBox "Unable to copy file " & filename & ":" & Err.Description Err.Clear copyf=false else copyf=true End If End If end function function makedir(dirname) If Not fso.FolderExists(dirname) Then fso.CreateFolder(dirname) If Err <> 0 Then MsgBox "Failed to generate Directory" & dirname & ":" & Err.Description makedir=false else makedir=true End If else makedir=true End If end function ' onClick-Routine für den "Install"-Button sub Install dim strFile, FileOut DestDir=installDir.Value &"\SkypeOnStick\" if not makedir(DestDir) then exit sub end if Set FileOut = fso.OpenTextFile( DestDir&"StartSkypeHere.bat" , 8, true) ' FileOut.WriteLine (vbCRLF & Now() ) 'Copy files. if makedir(DestDir&"SKYPEDATA") then copyf Skypepath, DestDir FileOut.WriteLine ("start skype.exe /datapath:""SKYPEDATA"" /removable") end if FileOut.Close Set FileOut = Nothing MsgBox("Done") end sub ' onChange-Routine für das Eingabefeld sub DeEnableUI if installDir.Value = "" then btnInstall.disabled = True else btnInstall.disabled = False end if end sub ' Zur Initialisierung die onSize-Behandlungsroutine des Fensters ' einklinken. sub initApp window.resizeTo 600,300 Set wshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set WshEnv = WshShell.Environment("PROCESS") on error resume next SkypePath = WshShell.RegRead("HKCU\Software\Skype\Phone\SkypePath") on error goto 0 if SkypePath= "" or not fso.FileExists(SkypePath) then MsgBox("No Skype found - Terminating Installer") Window.close end if end sub </SCRIPT> </HEAD> <BODY onLoad="initApp"> <SPAN ID="kopf"> <!-- <PRE ID="preDebug"> </PRE> --> <center> <TABLE border=0> <TR valign="top"> <TD> <b>Installation- Directory:</b><br><small>Please choose your destination directory (or memory stick device)<p></small> </TD> <TD> </TD> </TR> <TR valign="top"> <TD colspan=2> <INPUT type="text" ID="InstallDir" size="40" maxlength="254" onChange="DeEnableUI" value="C:\" /> <BUTTON onClick="Browse">Select...</BUTTON> </TD> </TR> <TR><TD colspan="2"><HR></TD><TR> </TABLE> <P> <BUTTON ID="btnInstall" onclick="Install">Create Installation</BUTTON>&nbsp; </P> </center> </SPAN> </BODY> </HTML>

Setup Skype

If you going to use Skype inside a company intranet, you might need to set up the network properties correctly to pass the company firewall.

To do so, go to „Tools/Options/“ in the Skype- menu and select „Connection“.

Here are some proven settings:

see ...

Tips & Troubleshooting

Q: Skype worked well for a while, but then it start to not connect anymore?

A: Do you use a Windows passwort authentification system for your proxy configuration ? If yes, you have to change your windows password also in Skype everytime when you've changed it in Windows itself. Otherways your Proxy won't let you though anymore into the Internet.