Microsoft's hurrying desktop Skype users to new client software.

As revealed in a post late last week, Redmond's new plan will mean that come March 1st, users of “Skype for Windows desktop (7.16 and below) or Skype for Mac (7.0 to 7.18) will no longer be able to sign in.”

To avoid that conversational crimp, you need merely update your Skype client before the due date.

The change is necessary, Microsoft says, because the clients mentioned above were built for ye olde ſkype and its peer-to-peer architecture. Skype's now heading to a cloudy architecture, the better to allow baked-in services like file sharing from within the Skype client and mobile video chats.