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Skype Portable leaves traces behind

Submitted by freemp on October 24, 2009 - 6:09am

I've just noticed that Skype Portable leaves behind a directory "C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\Skype" which itself may contain sub-directories depending on which functions of Skype have been used.

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Skype Leaves Traces

nguinn97 - October 24, 2009 - 7:26am

Did it happen on every computer you used it on or just the first one?

Nathanael G

it left a folder on both

whiskers - October 24, 2009 - 9:18am

it left a folder on both computers i used it at.

one was a vista computer, where a folder was left behind at C:\Users\SONY\AppData\Roaming

the other was XP, and it left behind a folder in the same location OP mentioned.

my av also mentioned some registry changes but i guess they're changed back when you quit?

Same here!

tmaibaum - October 28, 2009 - 4:45pm

As already reported (http://portableapps.com/news/2009-10-22_-_skype_portable_4.1#comment-130933 ), I have the same problem. John said this is a bug that's supposed to be fixed. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to happen always, otherwise more people would have reported this.

John asked to "detail your install, the files you found, what features you used that may have triggered it, your install location, etc."

OK, so I "installed" Skype Portable on my local hard disk, under Windows XP SP3. (the path is c:\portable apps\phone\skype\SkypePortable41\. I didn't use any special features and don't know what could have triggered it.

Here are the details of the files I found in the sandbox (using http://www.sandboxie.com/):

c:\user\current\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\6A6ASQC9\skype.com\#ui\preferences [text file, contents below]

c:\user\current\Local Settings\Temp [empty folder]

c:\user\current\Cookies\index [text file, contents below]

Contents of files

wbemprox
[contents begins]
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91015) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91031) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91031) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91031) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91031) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91046) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91046) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91046) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91062) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91062) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91062) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91062) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91078) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91078) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 10:06:08 2009.91078) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x8007045b
(Wed Oct 28 12:52:19 2009.9932281) : ConnectViaDCOM, CoCreateInstanceEx resulted in hr = 0x80070424
[contents ends]

preferences
[contents begins]

¿ ÑTCSO  ui/preferences os_skypeprotocol True os_timezone +0
os_version 5.01.2600 (Service

Pack 3) ui_accounts 2 ui_installdate
1226068298 ui_language de
ui_version 4.1.0.179
[contents ends]

cookies

[contents begins]
Client UrlCache MMF Ver 5.2 € @ € & € n ÿÿÿÿÏ
[contents ends]

Finally, Skype also makes changes to the registry.
Here is the record made with RegShot. I myself have not idea what to make of it, but I suppose someone else can.

Regshot 1.8.2
Comments:skype portable 4.1
Datetime:2009/10/28 12:46:32 , 2009/10/28 12:49:26

----------------------------------
Values modified:5
----------------------------------
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\RNG\Seed: 4E 1D 30 37 71 C8 E7 2E E1 9D 4F 80 F6 3A 52 7C CD 91 63 F9 48 14 38 68 24 EA D8 71 46 C1 77 1D 4C 63 58 C4 37 BE E8 8F 8E 9B AB B5 33 C0 78 B2 51 66 A6 90 57 3E 72 E8 55 B8 14 A5 33 2E 00 D0 91 E6 44 95 8C E2 3D BB 98 81 0F FD A8 B0 D1 33
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\RNG\Seed: 2E D7 43 44 1D 64 79 8F 7C 22 DF 69 9D 41 50 E8 E5 91 D6 F8 19 88 D5 D4 C1 56 28 CC 5F AB E8 15 FD 04 93 B5 D6 AE 72 9D F9 17 45 BA 43 79 67 D5 28 27 39 88 28 CF B6 5B 4E 17 04 CE 42 2C 60 F2 2B C2 CC 53 AF A4 38 F5 60 7A 15 3D 3E 35 11 9F
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\SharedAccess\Epoch\Epoch: 0x00003AD9
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\SharedAccess\Epoch\Epoch: 0x00003ADA
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Epoch\Epoch: 0x00003AD9
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Epoch\Epoch: 0x00003ADA
HKU\S-1-5-21-911699392-3236528909-3198933208-1005\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections\SavedLegacySettings: 46 00 00 00 A8 28 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 68 74 74 70 3A 2F 2F 6C 6F 63 61 6C 68 6F 73 74 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 9A A9 74 44 03 C7 01 01 00 00 00 C0 A8 7B BB 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
HKU\S-1-5-21-911699392-3236528909-3198933208-1005\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections\SavedLegacySettings: 46 00 00 00 A9 28 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 68 74 74 70 3A 2F 2F 6C 6F 63 61 6C 68 6F 73 74 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 9A A9 74 44 03 C7 01 01 00 00 00 C0 A8 7B BB 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
HKU\S-1-5-21-911699392-3236528909-3198933208-1005\SessionInformation\ProgramCount: 0x00000007
HKU\S-1-5-21-911699392-3236528909-3198933208-1005\SessionInformation\ProgramCount: 0x00000008

----------------------------------
Total changes:5
----------------------------------

Language settings

AndreaOnofriPG - October 29, 2009 - 6:52am

I noticed that Portable Skype does not store language settings and it always starts in Italian (o.s. language), even though I change the language settings to English every time.
Thank you

AndreaPG

Same here

Simeon's picture
Simeon - November 2, 2009 - 8:13am

I just wanted to say that this happened to mee to:

I run Skype, logged in to my account, made one call and exit the program. Skype left these:

HKCU\Software\Classes\Mime
HKCU\Software\Classes\Mime\Database
HKCU\Software\Classes\Mime\Database\Content Type
HKCU\Software\Skype
HKCU\Software\Skype\ProtectedStorage

C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\username\Anwendungsdaten\Skype
C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\username\Anwendungsdaten\Skype\Content
C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\username\Anwendungsdaten\Skype\My Skype Received Files

Hope that gets fixed in the next version.

Another thing I noticed:

What hgappened to the Launcher's Source Code??? Its not there.

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

It also happened on my

tonecool - November 5, 2009 - 1:10am

It also happened on my machine. This "portable" leaves traces, which means it's not real portable.
I'm not sure why they puted it in suite, but I'm going to check for traces my others apps downloaded from here

Me too

Parmenion - November 6, 2009 - 4:57am

I've same effect on two german WinXP computers too.

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