With the version count sitting at 3.8 for Windows, Internet telephony giant Skype isn't shy about rolling out the updates. That's great when they work, but my recent experiences trying to upgrade to 3.8 have been painful: no sound at all for a week, then -- just as technical support were starting to take me seriously -- basic sound returned, but with 10 seconds silence every minute or so. Not good enough.

The best solution in this case would seem to be rolling back to an earlier working package, but Skype doesn't make that easy: its installation routine comprehensively ditches the previous version, and only the latest release is ever available at its site. Thank goodness for Filehippo, which maintains a comprehensive archive of Skype releases. I wouldn't want to guarantee they'll all work with the current infrastructure, but if an upgrade starts playing nasty and stuff was working fine before, this is the first place to check in (after taking a deep breath, of course).