Skype rolls out automatic fix for users who faced start-up issues

Skype, after issuing instructions on how users should proceed to fix a start-up glitch that affected some users last week, has rolled out an automatic fix after many users found the update too difficult to perform manually.

The fix was released Friday for Windows users and a Mac fix rolled out a short while later. The update was required to fix a corruption that occurred in a small percentage of users' systems, Skype said, resulting in some of its community not being able to sign in to Skype. The company hasn't said what caused the problem.

"We issued some instructions which would allow you to get back online, but understand that they're fairly technical, and have been working hard to produce a version of Skype for Windows that fixes this problem automatically," Skype said late Thursday. "If you're using Skype for Windows, and have experienced problems logging in, please update Skype to the latest version now. We plan to release an update to Skype for Mac (Friday)."

Skype's last major outage was in December, when it went down worldwide. The company earlier this month agreed to be acquired by Microsoft for $.5 billion.

For more:
- see this article

Related articles:
Microsoft pays $8.5 billion to acquire VoIP provider Skype
Skype ends 2010 with 663 million users
Skype goes down worldwide for first time since 2007