Windows 11 All-in-One For Dummies

Chapter 6

Communicating with Skype

IN THIS CHAPTER

Finding Skype

Adding people on Skype

Configuring Skype

Making Skype calls and recording them

Everybody knows Skype, the instant-text-messaging, long-distance, telephone-killing video-chatting program. Not everybody knows that it started as something of a hacker’s fantasy in 2003, in Estonia. Two of the key players in getting Skype to market, Janus Friis from Denmark and Niklas Zennstrom from Sweden, spent their earlier years getting Kazaa — the notorious file-sharing program that was used to distribute copyrighted content for free — off the ground.

Microsoft bought Skype in 2011, for a paltry $8.5 billion — yes, that’s billion with a b. The management moved to Redmond, but most of the techies are still in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia. As years went by, Skype has become a Microsoft product. One hundred percent. And this is not necessarily great.

Skype works, and it works well with iPhones, iPads, and Android smartphones and tablets, but it’s had a difficult time with Windows. It took Microsoft a few years to get around to building ...