Plexed Skin

Designed by user FusionFan45, Plexed skin is a classy take on Steam’s default interface. The creator took inspiration from the now mythical Longhorn interface, and sought to create a unified, neat and easy to use a skin. Let’s take a closer look.

Colors & Design

In terms of color, the skin is very similar to Steam’s default layout. The panels and backgrounds are slightly bluer, and the address bar and menu area have been given a subtle, Longhorn-esque texture.
Longhorn, Microsoft’s prototype interface that gave way to Windows Vista, has a cult following online, especially in customization circles. Also borrowed from Longhorn’s interface are the back and forward buttons, which stand out perhaps a little too much.

Legibility

The font has been changed to Segoe UI with a sensible font size, making almost every element easy to read. The only issue in this regard is that subheadings in the ‘recent news’ area are too close in color to the background, making them hard to read.

Usability

The only way to access big picture mode is through the ‘view’ menu, but at least it isn’t overlapping other elements as it does in other skins that haven’t been kept up to date.
There should be a shortcut for big picture mode somewhere aside from within the menus. It’s a feature that gets quite a lot of use and is becoming ever more popular. The messages icon is bright green and won’t allow new messages to be missed easily.

Verdict

While I’m not in love with the Longhorn texturing and interface elements the crispness and legibility of all the important parts of the interface require tiny compromise on behalf of the user. Fans of the Longhorn style will surely love it – others likely won’t see the charm.

Screenshots

Click on the images below to enlarge and see better!

Plexed Skin Changelogs

Plexed v4.6

• Compatible with the new Steam chat update.
• Minor cosmetic changes.

Plexed v4.5

• High DPI support added.
• Skin is now usable without DirectWrite enabled.

Installation Instructions

1. Download the skin file below, you should get an archive with the “.zip” or “.rar” extension.
2. Extract the ZIP or RAR and move the folder to:
   • Windows: C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/skins
   • MAC OS X: Press Cmd+Shift+G in Finder and type ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam.AppBundle/Steam/Contents/MacOS/skins
   • Linux: ~/.local/share/Steam/skins/
3. Open the Steam interface and in top tab, click on “Steam” / “Settings”.
4. Then open the Interface section.
5. Find the option “Select the skin you wish Steam to use (requires Steam to restart)” and choose the skin that you want.
6. Completely shut down and restart Steam.
7. That was all; now you must have another interface.

Disable/Uninstall

• v1: Only go back to the Interface tab in Steam’s Settings and select a different skin.
• v2: Delete the skin folder from /Steam/skins.

Steam Group

The chat and friends UI doesn't load? Then you have to disable the new UI for them. We posted a guide on how to do this, take a look here.