If you’re a PC gamer, you’ve probably enjoyed the chaotic battle of Steam sales or scrolling through your recommendations in search of your next favorite game. While most of us appreciate Steam — or at least tolerate it, since it’s an inevitable part of the PC gaming landscape — Valve’s venerable storefront can often seem a little clunky compared to the more modern interfaces we see in our daily lives. to use .
While you can’t completely erase Steam’s quirks, there are a few ways to mold it more to your liking. If you’re tired of flat black backgrounds and your game library presenting itself as an imposing wall of titles, you can add a little customization. Many of these tricks are buried in Steam’s somewhat confusing options menu, but there are a few more tweaks we recommend to make Steam look and feel better.
Categorize your games
The default display settings of Steam’s game library are not to my liking. The list is too small, the game details pane too big, and there’s a lot of dark negative space that you have to scroll through to do anything. The good news is that this is by far the most customizable part of the Steam experience, and it doesn’t take much effort to fix some of the more glaring flaws.
If you don’t use Steams game collection function already, you For real should. The collect function allows you to organize and sort your games into groups based on many different criteria, rather than the usual alphabetical list. This makes it easier to navigate through your library. It may seem like an insignificant feature, but it can have an inordinate impact on your playing time. To create a new collection on Steam, click on the four boxes next to the Home tab and then click on ‘create a new collection’. You have two options: create a normal collection, or a dynamic collection. We will stick to normal collections for the time being.
To add a game to a collection, highlight it, right click, go to ‘add to’ and select the desired collection. You can use the usual Windows commands like Shift or Ctrl-click in order (or Shift + arrow keys) to highlight many games at once, which will save a lot of time. Keep in mind that a game can belong to several collections at once.
While the collections you create are ultimately up to you, I recommend at least five: “Currently Playing,” “Will Play,” “Complete,” “Favorites,” and most crucially, “Not Interested.” Personally, I’ve split my “Will Play” category into three levels of enthusiasm, and my favorites in multiplayer and single player games, but there’s no right way to do it.
As for game categories, remember that you can easily set Steam to show only games that you currently have installed by clicking the play arrow next to Games and Software. In addition, clicking the clock next to it will sort all your games by recent activity.
Dynamic collections
Dynamic collections are an underrated (and perhaps unknown) aspect of Steam’s categorization system. The main draw here is that these collections update themselves without any input from you. This makes them especially useful for tracking traits that change over time, especially play time, recent friend activity, and Steam review score. You can also set them up to follow Steam tags that mark genre, tone, and length, so if you want to play all the roguelikes or horror games you own, this is an easy way to do it.
If you have a game collection that is so large that you often forget what you own, dynamic collections are a great way to refresh your memory or just pick a game you want to play. They also don’t take much time to set up.
Switch skins
So you’ve messed with Steam’s default visual settings and you’ve decided you want something different. The good news is that it is very easy to install a new Steam skin to change the look of the entire program. The bad news is that they are surprisingly limited in functionality these days.
To install a Steam skin, you need to create a new folder in your Steam folder called “skins”. Then you can download the skin you want and extract the data in that folder. Make sure it has its own subfolder. Next, go to Steam’s settings, then Interface and select the skin from the drop-down menu. The most popular Steam skins are Metro, Plexed, and Compact. Metro is easiest to get to work so I recommend it. However, I personally use OG-Steam, which transforms the client into its very first version in 2004. SteamSkins.org is the best site to find many Steam skins.
While these skins can change the look of the outer edges of the Steam client, that’s pretty much all they can do. Why? Because Steam has switched almost all of its functionality to browser-based in recent years. If you want to skin your Steam Library and Friend tabs, you can download a third-party program called SFP (formerly SteamFriendsPatcher) to patch over the default CSS. However, it can be a bit finicky to work with. If you want to learn more about how to maximize your utility with Steam skins, check out this guide.
Try an alternate game manager
From an objective standpoint, Steam doesn’t offer many options for aesthetically oriented consumers. You can get around the restrictions by using other game management software instead. With these programs, you can easily launch games from multiple digital platforms, such as Steam and Epic Games, from one place. If you still want an all-in-one game launcher to fit this bill, we recommend Playnite.
While Playnite still requires you to have Steam (and other storefronts) open in order to play your library on that platform, the default theme looks a lot better than Valve’s program. It also supports emulators and standalone games, complete with information from online databases, as well as an hour meter. It also supports quite a few hip themes. If you prefer to stick with an official platform, GOG Galaxy 2.0 is also an option, as it allows you to add games to the launcher that are not on the GOG storefront or platform, such as your Steam games.
Sticking to real gaming storefronts like Epic Games and Steam makes it easier to keep up with new games and sales. In contrast, unofficial platforms like Playnite are much more customizable and aesthetically oriented.
In general, I think a lot of people look at front-ends like Playnite and wonder what the point is. For most players, custom themes and a few categories are enough to keep the library neat and sorted, and Steam can provide those options. If you’re the kind that puts effort into organizing your game library and making it look just the way you want, then it’s fair to say that Steam still has a long way to go and other programs might be the answer. are what you are looking for.
The products discussed here have been independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may receive a portion of the proceeds when you purchase something featured on our site.
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