VLC Media Player Skinned

The default VLC Media Player skin or theme is simple and functional enough for us to play our video and audio files. It has everything a person would want out of a media player software. But did you know that you can switch to a skinned version of VLC Media Player to get a stylish look for this software?

You heard it right. You can change VLC Media Player skins and looks if you are interested. I kind of knew that this feature existed, hidden somewhere. Many people don’t use this feature or don’t know about it. Some don’t care about changing their VLC skins because they are quite satisfied with the default one. But for those interested, you can give a new look to your player. The new look will be quite attractive.

Note: VLC Media Player skins are not supported for Mac OS X users. Tough luck.

To use a skinned version of VLC Media Player

For Windows:

Windows users can simply open up a shortcut that says “VLC Media Player Skinned” from the start menu to run the skinned version of VLC Media Player.

They can also type the following, in their Run dialog box of Windows [Shortcut: Windows Key + R].

“C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe” -Iskins

For Everyone:

To switch to a skinned version of VLC Media Player using the options in the player follow these steps:

1. Open up your player.
2. From the menu bar,go to Tools > Preferences [Shortcut: CTRL + P]
   
3. On the next screen, “Interface” preference is the default selected one.
   
4. On the right, you will see two radio buttons. One of them has “Use native style” and the other one has “Use custom skin”.
   
5. Click on the radio button that says “Use custom skin” to switch to it. The options below will change, leave it as it is and click on save.
   
6. Exit VLC Media Player and open it again. You can also just open a new instance of VLC.
7. When you open a fresh VLC Player, you will see that the skinned version will now run.

To turn off skinned version of VLC Media Player:

1. Your skinned or themed version of VLC media player does not have a menu bar. So to switch back to the default style follow these steps:
2. Right click anywhere on the skinned player and then choose Interface > Preferences [Shortcut: Ctrl + P]
   
3. From the Interface Settings, click on “Use native style”.
   
4. Click on Save.
   
5. Next time you run VLC Media Player, the default version without any styles will run.