How to automatically start a second skype entity at Windows start

Question

I learned from the Skype forum that it is possible to run several Skype instances at a time by running them with different system users (need to be Administrators and have password).

How would I go about starting up my second skype instance with another user automatically at startup? Is there a way to write a batch for such a task?

Answer 1

Skype Launcher allows you to open and sign into multiple instances / user accounts of skype. With this program you don't have to hassle yourself with user permissions. Hope this helps

Auto-Login feature:

If you want to use the Autologin feature, simple start the SkypeLauncher_config.exe and add your Skype accounts. When you now start the SkypeLauncher.exe it will login all saved accounts. To return to "old" behavior, simple delete all saved accounts with the SkypeLauncher_config.exe. The credentials are stored AES encrypted in the registry.

You must disable the "Sign me in when skype start" feature in Skype!

More info here

Answer 2

You can't do this automatically with a batch. The only tool you'd have at your disposal there would be runas which always prompts for the password, you can't supply it via the command line. Arguably a security feature.

What you could do is to set up a Scheduled Task that runs on log-on and starts Skype as a different user. Scheduled Tasks use cached credentials, that's why you get asked for them when you set it up. This might work, though I'm not entirely sure whether the user running the program and the user having to log on can be distinct.