How to Change VLC Media Player Theme or Skins

VLC Media Player theme or skins can be easily changed. The first thing you have to know is how to switch to the skinned version of VLC Media Player from the default version. After you have figured that out, you will be easily able to change your player themes. The only thing that you have to do is get some themes and then apply it for your VLC Media Player.

There are several locations on the internet to get themes for VLC. The most trusted place to get those skins is the official website. Here is the link for you to the official skin download page in the VideoLAN website. From there you will be easily able to download those great skins. Just browse through the collection, click on a skin you like and a window will open within the same browser window. From there, click on download to get the skin that you selected. After a short while, a file that usually ends with the extention .vlt will be downloaded.

How to Change to the Theme/Skin that you Downloaded:

Let’s say you downloaded the sony_psp_XML.vlt skin. Move it to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\skins folder on Windows. You can skip the moving file step, but you’d be organized if you kept all your VLC skins at the same location. You may need to provide administrator privilege if you decide to move your skin to the Program Files folder. It is even easier to switch through multiple themes this way.

  1. In VLC, go to Tools > Preferences
    vlc-tools-preferences
  2. From the Interface Settings, which is the one that is currently selected, click on “Use custom skin” which is under the “Look and feel” heading.
    interface-use-custom-skin
  3. In the Skin resource file, the default skin is chosen. Click on “Choose”, browse to the location where your skin is and select your skin file. For this example it is sony_psp_XL.vlt file. Click on “Open” next. You can skip this step and just use the default skin which can be cycled through later. That is only if you placed your downloaded skin file(s) in Program Files folder. Then hit the save button.
    vlc-open-skin
  4. Relaunch VLC Again or launch another instance of VLC Player and your new downloaded skin will be applied.
    psp-skinned-vlc
  5. If you have to switch through one or more downloaded skins, right click anywhere on your skinned VLC Media Player and then go to Interface > Select Skin and click on another skin there. Only skins placed in your Skins folder will be displayed there.
    interface-select-skin
  6. A new look for your current VLC Player will be applied instantly.

7 thoughts to “How to Change VLC Media Player Theme or Skins”

  1. Okay, but how do I use Skins installed through the VLC Addons interface? It says “installed” but I can’t find any skin file or how to use it…

    1. VLC I can say is the best media player, with the WORST interface in the world, not even skining works from the skins lol check your following folders, your skins files should be there
      :
      C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\vlc\skins\
      or
      C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\vlc\skins2\

  2. select skin is greyed out and i can’t select it. i checked to see if my player is up to date and it is. what could the problem be?

  3. @Glenn when VLC is open, press CTRL+P and the preferences window will open allowing you to change the skin.

  4. Hello, I installed VLC and only get a console window, no player interface. I have tried loading a skin, such as the default skin in the skins folder, and I get an error. I don’t know how to get to any preferences in that console. Help only tells me how to play file playing commands.

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