How to completely remove Skype add-ons

Question

The question is pretty self explanatory I believe but I'd like to clarify something. I know how to remove the add-ons from appearing. The problem is that after I remove them the extremely annoying sidebar/ topbar is still there.

I've searched everything and still can't find an answer to that. Is there any way to completely remove those bars from appearing? I know it could be done in the previous versions but apparently it's impossible for me to do it in the newer ones. Any solutions to that?

Answer 1

zETO. In the assumption that:

1. your request is still valid
2. it pertains to the Skype 7.x for Windows desktop application under Win 7/8/10
3. you indeed meant to remove Skype ads and not add-ons (which goes beyond advertisements only)

4. you indeed managed to exclude the ad content (either by :

   • by declaring the apps.skype.com in the list of Restricted Sites under your Internet Options, or
   • by adding following exclusion statement 127.0.0.1 apps.skype.com to your host file located in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\host

...i.e. resulting in having no more ads displayed but the ad placeholder / frame still diplayed and actually want to get rid of that, then:

1. completely exit Skype (ensure it is no more in the list of active processes)
2. locate and open to edit the file C:\users\[your user name]\App Data\Roaming\Skype\[your Skype username]\config.xml
3. search for the line where the <AdvertPlaceholder> tag can be found and replace its specified value (probably a 1) by 0 then save and exit
4. restart Skype and check that the placeholder no longer appears.

I'm a bit surprised you didn't find this simply by googling "completely disable ads in skype" ...

Hoping this might have helped, though. Cheers.