If you're like me; Fucking annoyed by the look of the new Skype and hate it like hell, luckily theres a fix to downgrade and prevent Skype from auto updating, without ever prompting you to update your Skype!
First off, if you don't already have the old version of Skype installed anymore, you can download it here. (version. 6.3.0.107) Make sure to Uninstall your current version of Skype, before attempting to install this version, otherwise it won't let you!
Once Skype 6.3 is installed, login onto your account as usual. (You may see a prompt asking you to update already, just ignore and close it)
Then go to Tools -> Options then select Advanced tab.
Select "Automatic updates", click "Turn off automatic updates" button and click "Save" button. See the picture below.
Once thats done, sign out of Skype again.
Go to Start -> type "cmd" then right-click & select "Run as administrator".
Type "sc delete SkypeUpdate". If successful it will return message: "[sC] DeleteService SUCCESS"
Go to Start > type %temp% and press Enter.
Search and delete the file "SkypeSetup.exe". See picture below.
Once thats deleted, go to Run -> and type "%systemroot%\System32\drivers\etc\".
Open notepad.exe then drag & drop the file named host into the window, so it opens it.
Add the text "127.0.0.1 download.skype.com" below the last line of your host file. See picture below.
Save the file, reboot your system, and DONE!- Now your skype will stay the same lovely version for ever, without every annoying you with update prompts/popups.
Note: You can't download Skype manually by using this technique! If you want to download from download.skype.com in the future, you need to remove this line from the hosts file. Or else, use either of the procedures below.
Hope this tutorial will help a few that really don't like the new Skype! If you find this helpful please hit like!
BONUS: Prevent Skype from showing ads above chats/calls by adding theese sites to your host file, and thereby blocking them permanently. (This will only occur if you do not have Skype premium or call credit).
127.0.0.1 ads1.msn.com
127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com
127.0.0.1 a.rad.msn.com
127.0.0.1 b.rad.msn.com
127.0.0.1 spe.atdmt.com