** This blog post has been edited since it was first published earlier today **

update : 13.25 - after discussing the issue further with Peter Kalmstrom, he has made me realise that I am confusing the toolbar with the extension. So I have updated the post accordingly. Apologies for the confusion.

update : 14.05 - it appears I may have to uninstall the extension! After 15 minutes of running, my Firefox browser is hovering around 50% of CPU usage (at one point, it shot up to 81%!). It hasn't been like this since I uninstalled the toolbar. I have informed Peter at Skype and he is looking into the situation. I'll update the blog post if I learn anything new.


I previously commented that my Firefox browser was crashing due to a crappy Skype toolbar and so I had to uninstall it to rescue my Fox. It looks like the blog post quickly came to the attention of the right people because this morning, I received a Skype chat message from Peter Kalmstrom who is the Skype manager for toolbars. He and the German Skype forum moderator, Claudius Henrichs, both informed me that the Skype toolbar is not a Firefox feature that automatically updates and that you have to manually update it yourself. Not manually updating the Skype toolbar, it appears, can cause some compatibility problems!

It seems you can update the toolbar in the following ways :

1. From the menu of the toolbar - there is an option there to check for newer versions.

2. By downloading and installing the latest version from the website.


This begs the question why the Skype toolbar is not automatically updated by Firefox (just like most other FF features). I mean, if you're busy, who remembers on a regular basis to update everything? Mr Kalmstrom replied that this is because "we have not done it strictly according to the FireFox framework". OK but why is this fact not widely advertised on the Skype website / forum? I wonder how many Skype users uninstalled the toolbar in disgust, not realising that the problems they were experiencing could easily be removed by manually updating the toolbar? If you don't openly advertise this issue then no-one will ever know - all it takes is a short message on the Skype download page, something along the lines of "please be aware that when you upgrade your Skype program, it's a good idea to upgrade the toolbar too". One sentence that could remove headaches from a lot of annoyed Skype toolbar / Firefox users!

So if your Skype toolbar is playing up, you can update it using one of the two methods outlined above. Or instead you can install the alternative Skype Firefox extension. If you would prefer the extension, here's what to do. I did the following and it appears to be OK so far....(fingers crossed).

1. Download the latest version of Skype from the Skype website.

2. When it is downloaded, run the "Skypesetup.exe" file. The following window will open. Click on "options"



3. Then this next window will open. Make sure the box "Install Skype Plugin for Mozilla Firefox" is ticked (or the Internet Exploder one if you use that.....uuurgh!). Then click "install".




4. The Skype program will then be re-installed on your computer along with the current version of the Firefox extension. But a warning - doing this install will require a re-boot of your computer! So make sure you're not in the middle of anything important when you're doing this!


Kudos to Skype for taking the time and effort to help me out with this toolbar issue. They really do look after their users.