Skype bug blocks mostly Microsoft users

Skype issued a manual workaround on Thursday to resolve a glitch that prevented mostly Windows users from logging in.

The VoIP company, which Microsoft has agreed to pay US$8.5 billion for, gave instructions on how to resolve the log-in problem by deleting a “shared.xml” file.

“This predominantly affects people using Skype for Windows,” its advisory stated. Similar instructions were given to Mac OS X and Linux users.

The rush to find out what went wrong also temporarily knocked Skype’s website offline. 

The three step workaround could be complicated for non-technical users, but if that was the case Skype promised “a fix in the next few hours”.

It’s the first service hiccup for the VoIP company since Microsoft agreed to purchase it two weeks ago.

The underlying cause of a 24 hour outage last Christmas was attributed to a bug in an older version of Skype, which knocked out 30 percent the “supernode” clients that support its peer to peer network. 

While many Twitter users have blamed Microsoft for the outage, several Microsoft watchers issued reminders that the transaction was yet to be completed.

"Until regulatory approval happens, Skype and MS are operating independently," All About Microsoft blogger Mary Jo Foley posted on Twitter. 

Skype had not disclosed the source of the current problem.