Install Custom Steam Skins on Windows 11 – 2 Methods

Install Custom Steam Skins on Windows 11

If you are a PC gamer, then you might be using Steam Client excessively? Undoubtedly, steam has the largest collection of PC Games. And, if you often open the Steam client to launch or install/update games. As a result, you might now get tired of seeing the default blue theme. Yes, in past few years, developers added many new features but there aren’t any customization options introduced. But thankfully, steam offers an option to set custom Steam Skins on Windows 11. And, there are some free custom steam skins available to download. So, in this article, you will find a few cool Steam Skins and the easiest way to install them. Here’s how you can do so.

What are Steam Skins?

If you’re not into customizations then skins word might sound confusing to you. Skins is nothing else but just custom themes for the steam clients. Users can change the entire look and feel of steam clients using skins, even without disabling any important features. For example, if you’re someone who likes dark mode everywhere with minimal design. Then, there is a fluent steam skin available for that, which matched Windows 11 theme as well.

There are two ways available to change steam skins on Windows 11. You can either use steam client settings or a third-party app. No worries, you can choose whichever method is best for you by reading this article. Do you know? You can now also Install Custom Discord Themes.

Update: Steam has completely removed the option to add or change skins.

Install Custom Steam Skins on Windows 11

1. Use Steam App Settings.

Download Custom Steam Skins for Free.

There is no official source to download steam skin files. There are some third-party skin downloader sites available, which, we don’t recommend due to ads. But, if you’re looking for a genuine source to download custom steam skins, then download from Github. Because you will find free and open-source steam themes. There is one more source to download free themes, do check the second method for that.

  1. Open Github official site.
  1. Search for “steam skin”. That’s it, you will now find 100+ steam skins for free.
  1. Once you open any skin GitHub page. Do click on the Releases option from the right-side.
  1. After that from the assets section, you can download that custom skin zip file.

Just to demonstrate the steam skin installation process. I have downloaded the “Fluent-for-Steam” skin zip file from Github. Which is a simple skin to make the steam client look like Windows 11. This means this skin is based on Windows 11 dark theme.

Download Fluent for Steam Skin for Windows 11

Once the zip file gets downloaded of your desired custom steam skin. Do right-click on it and then click on Extract All > Extract. You can use 7Zip or NanaZip also to extract zip files.

Extract Fluent for Steam Skin File

Create a new Steam skins folder and transfer skins files.

By default, when you install the steam client, it doesn’t create any skins folder. So, you have to create one by yourself. And once you create a steam skins folder, you can transfer all your skins files into it. This will allow you to easily switch between multiple themes from within the steam client.

  1. First, open File Explorer in Windows 11 and navigate to the following directory. This is the default steam installation directory. Yours could be different if you’ve changed it during installation.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam
  1. Now right-click anywhere on the steam folder. And, from the context menu, click on new > folder.
Create new skins folder inside steam folder
  1. A new folder will get created, give it a new name “skins”.
Enter Folder Name in Skins
  1. That’s it, now move all your extracted skin zip files in it. Once you place all skins inside this skins folder, you can activate any theme you want.
Move Skins files in Steam Skins Folder

Install/Enable Custom Steam Skins.

  1. Do open the Steam App using Windows search or desktop shortcut.
  1. From the upper left corner, click on steam, and from the menu, click on Settings.
Open Steam App Settings to Change theme
  1. The steam settings window will appear, click on Interface.
  1. Now you will see a section “select the skin you wish Steam to use”. Click on “< default skin >”. Now a list of all skins that you transferred inside the skins folder will appear.
Select the skin that you wish steam to use
  1. Select a theme/skin of your choice. And, click on OK.
Select and Apply Steam Fluent Skin
  1. “Steam – Restart Required” small window will appear. Click on “Restart Steam”.
Restart Steam App
  1. Steam App will now restart and the new theme will get applied.

Switch back to the Default Steam Skin.

If you don’t like the newly applied theme, then you can switch back to the original steam skin.

  1. Click on the theme name from the upper left corner. And, click on settings.
  1. Click on Interface. This time, do select the “< default skin >” option and click on OK.
Switch Back to Default Steam Skin
  1. That’s it, a small window will appear to restart steam, click on it.
  1. And, once the steam app will restart, your old steam skin will get activated.

So this was the official way to change steam skins using steam app settings. But wait, there is another method, which you can try.

2. Steam Customizer/Manager.

Steam Customizer is a free online Steam skin editor. With the online tool, you can change steam color, and fonts and add a logo of your choice in the background. Basically, you can completely customize the steam theme. And, once you are done with the customization, you can download skin in “.stskin” format. And, to open StSkin files, developers have created a Steam Skin Manager tool. With this, you can instantly apply steam skins. And, it does work with your existing skins.

  1. First, do download the steam manager app on your Windows 11 PC/Laptop.
  1. Once the setup file gets downloaded, install it in your system. Don’t forget to keep the shortcut on the desktop during the installation process.
Steam Customizer Setup
  1. Steam Customizer shortcut will get created on the desktop, launch it.
  1. Skins window will appear. And you can now manage all skins that you’ve placed inside the Skins folder. In the first method, I clearly mentioned how to do so.
  1. Select any skin of your choice and click on Apply.
Steam Skin Manager Apply Steam Skins
  1. the Steam client will get restarted and skin will get applied. Means, no need to access steam settings every time.

To anytime switch back to the default theme, from the left pane do select the option and click on Apply.

Create your own custom steam skin.

Open the official website of Steam Customizer and you will get two options. Create and Explore.

Download Free Steam Skins.

If you don’t want to create your own skin, just want to get some free custom themes. Then, click on explore, and you will find so many community created skins.

Create and Explore Steam Skins from Steam Customizer

Customize Steam Skin.

  1. Alternatively, you can click on Create, and an online editor will get open. From the right side of the editor, you can completely customize the look and feel of the steam client.
Customize Steam Skins
  1. And, once you are done with customization, click on Download Skin.
Download Custom Steam Skins
  1. The skin file will get downloaded, and you can run it.
  1. Once, you run it skin will get auto-applied to the steam client. Because you have already installed skin manager.

Do open Steam Customizer again and you will find custom skin also in there. Means, no need to move it inside the skins folder.

Summing-up

Okay, so these were the two methods to install skins on the Steam client. You can either use the official method, or you can use the steam customizer. Github has limited themes and for some users, the first method might be complicated a little bit. So it’s better to install steam skin manager and get free themes from the explore section of the site. If you are still not able to change the steam client look or facing any issues, let me know in the comment section.