Annoying Skype Add-on in IE

Skype for VOIP services is a great way to stay in touch with clients, conduct conference calls, or hold project progress meetings. One customer recently contacted me because Skype links with flags and the Skype logo appeared automatically for each phone number displayed on their custom cms website that I designed.

They assumed the Skype link was part of the website design when instead it is an annoying Skype add-on in IE. The activated add-on and not the custom cms design is the reason the links appear. Their purpose is to allow instantly connecting by phone through Skype if you have their service. If not, and you prefer email or picking up the phone, here’s the solution to disable that display.

For people wondering “Where or how did that add-on originate and get on my pc?”, it is bundled with the browser, so you didn’t have a choice or do anything wrong. This short tutorial explains how to disable the Skype add-on for your pc when enabled in Internet Explorer IE8. The tutorial steps should be similar for older versions of IE, also.

While in Internet Explorer using the menu at the top of the page select Tools and then Internet Options and then select the tab for Programs. In that view select the button near the bottom for “Manage Add-ons”. The next screen may take a moment to fill and then you’ll see a list of programs that are either enabled or disabled. Find any add-ons for Skype and disable them. That should do it.

You may encounter the annoying Skype add-on if you run older versions of Firefox, also. The steps are very similar to those given in the IE8 tutorial, so search Tools, Manage Add-ons, and disable the one for Skype.

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