How to make the old version of Skype work

On August 2, right during a call to my parents, Skype threw me out and refused to accept the password with the words “Skype no longer supports the operation of its software on your system.” In fact, of course, the point is not in the version of the system, but in the version of Skype itself: I had 4.2 (under Windows). I did not even consider the option of upgrading to later versions. After warming up for a week, I still began to look for ways to solve the problem and, to my great surprise, found it.

So, the procedure for launching the "old" version of "Skype" is as follows (I repeat, the recipe for "Windows").

1. We make a full backup of the folder %appdata%\Skype.
2. Download and install version 2.5 .
3. After installation, run, enter the username and password. The program will refuse to connect and offer to upgrade. Without closing the window with this sentence, we are still connected via the menu icon in the system tray.
4. We close the program, make a backup of the updated shared.xml and config.xml files from the folder %appdata%\Skypein case something goes wrong.
5. Install the desired version of the program and run it. If it connects and works, great.
6. If the program does not connect, replace shared.xml from version 2.5.
7. If there is no contact list, you need to manually remove it from config.xml from the old installation and add it to the current config.xml. BranchIt’s easy to figure out.
8. If this does not help, replace main.db from the backup.

The source is here , I just added the last point - without it, I did not have any contacts.

Update as of August 11, 2014: the recipe stopped working, authorization flies within a few seconds after launch.