So  this is a course about Skype messaging on Windows 10 and Skype is built into every version of Windows 10 as well as many other platforms 

So let's have a look at the Skype account that you'll be using 

So it is built in as the same login as your Windows 10 login 

So if your Windows login is koolmyrtle @outlook.com then the Skype login will be live colon koolmyrtle and the profile name for me will be david cox So you can find your contacts in Skype by the Skype account or by the profile name

So this is the Skype screen that you will find i've got a shortcut down on the taskbar and i'll show you how to create that in a moment and you can get into Skype by clicking on the start button and scroll down through the programs 

Skype is part of your profile and there it is and that's where you'd find it on all Windows machines 

So this is the Skype screen and to set up your own profile you need to find these three dots up in the top left hand corner next to where your name is 

I've already inserted a photo of me and that's going to help your friends find you and that goes in and that becomes part of your profile 

So let's click on these three dots and see what we get in settings 

So settings first of all is the profile picture and that you go to that it will say do you want to upload this who can see it public only or contacts only 

So you can set it as being private on the general tab you can then set different theme a different color a language your native language or you can share it with Bing because Skype is Microsoft and Bing is one of the Microsoft search engines 

Audio and video allows you to look at the camera which is me going through this particular session and the microphone which is also working 

If i'm calling then I can set up a caller id which will show at the other end 

I can set up call forwarding and voicemail which is disabled on this one you can answer incoming calls automatically now that's something you may or may not want to do depends on whether you want to be interrupted or not but you'll certainly know when someone's calling you but they whether you answer or not is entirely up to you 

Then you can have a little call window showing when Skype's running in the background and i've got that set to on and then you can only allow calls from your contacts 

So if you've got a contact and they ring you then you can set it 

So they're the only people that can ring you on this particular pc and then emergency calls 

I'm in the uk and emergency calls do not work on Skype but there is a feature in Skype where you can actually call a telephone line, a landline or a mobile phone number from your Skype interface 

Messaging you can set messages So you can leave messages for people who are in your contacts lists 

You can have emoticons in there web link previews in there and you can then send your message with the enter key all of these can be sent either on or off notifications the chat is where you can leave messages reactions tips and tricks any sounds in there all sorts of options just to improve the usability and to be able to personalize your chat interface 

Then contacts You can sync your contacts these are people who are in your email list which you may or may not want So it's your choice and mine is set to off 

You can manage how people find you on Skype by doing that and then you can have some blocked contacts if people are becoming a nuisance then you can set them to being blocked and they will not then be able to contact you at all 

So all of those things are in settings So we'll come out of that and now next thing we'll look at making a call

So if i select one of my other accounts which is david cox trainer then i've been running a few test calls on this particular machine and I can then call from this one to my other account or I can actually receive calls from that and for this so that the two machines are at least a few meters apart i need to enlist the help of my wife who will be phoning me or receiving calls 

So let's try that

So first of all I want to make a video call to my other machine which will be answered by my wife and to get make that I click on the video icon which is in the top right hand corner 

So let's give it a go

Then my wife has answered the call on the other end of this phone and that's the way that it works 

So we'll ring off on that one

So now we'll try and make just a voice call and that one you click on the little telephone icon 

So this is audio only So no pictures on this one and then the call has been answered at the other end and we can just talk to each other 

So that's the way to make a call either a video call or a audio only call and now i'm going to show you what happens when you get an incoming call

So in the top right we've got these two green buttons and a red button 

If i don't want to answer this call then I click on the red button If I want to answer it in voice only I click on the telephone button if I want to answer it video wise then I click on the video button

When I get the response then I get some more icons coming up and in the bottom left then I can actually share my screen with the person at the other end 

I can take a snapshot of the pictures which are running at either end 

I can send them a little emoticon to say hello and how I'm feeling and on the plus button there's more options and I can start a recording and the recording then goes into my timeline 

So that's what happens when So meone calls you and when you finish with the overall call then you can click on the red button and that finishes everything

Finally as well as making video calls and audio calls we can just send a message and at the bottom of the screen then we can type in here the message that we may want to send to our contacts and in that message we can include files money transfer and we can also send video messages 

So this is another feature of Skype that is useful particularly if people aren't answering their Skype calls when you make them

To cover the point that we made earlier about creating a shortcut if we click on the start button and we scroll down through our programs to the Skype entry and right click on that, select the more option and we can then pin it or unpin it from the taskbar and that's what puts it down here on the taskbar 

So you don't have to surf your way through all of the program listings every time you want to make a Skype call