Malden

Malden is a command-line application that can be used to accompany Skype and Microsoft Lync / Microsoft Office Communicator, in order to monitor the status of friends, in order to let you know whether or not they are online. It can also open the chat window with just a click as well as perform other types of actions.

Installing this application isn't necessary since it's wrapped in a single executable file that can be dropped anywhere on the disk and just double-clicked to fire up the tool. It can even be placed on a USB flash drive and directly launched on any PC with Skype. Also, you can call its process from a console-based window. From the command-line panel, you can specify your Skype account name.

The app launches a graphical interface that can be accessed from the system tray. It runs alongside Skype and gives you the possibility to quickly set your status to online, away, do no disturb, invisible or offline.

Moreover, it's possible to pin favorite contacts to the taskbar, set a picture for the online, offline, away and do not disturb status, hide the icon if the user is offline, prevent the app from checking for software updates automatically, and so on.