OK -here is what I did and CURSER SKIPPING HAS STOPPED for me -so everyone -persist and you shall prevail. I went into my control panel and clicked on mouse to change the touchpad settings. But there was NO Touchpad listed! So, I went to Dell and found a mouse/touchpad driver for my make and model and downloaded it. Then after I re-started my computer, i went back to the Control Panel and clicked on Mouse Settings and sure enough Touchpad was listed. I changed the pad sensitivity to HARD -since I use an external mouse (Wacom Tablet, actually) and check it out -NO MORE SKIPPING!!!
As I stated before I do not have Windows 7, I have Vista. We all have the same prob with different laptops and different software and programs -but somehow -at least in my case - it was the touchpad. Maybe the static from the winter months? Who knows. I waited 24 hours before telling you -but still NO SKIPPING -so try it! And don't throw your laptop out the window!