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Throughout the years, Minecraft has remained true to its textures. New updates may provide a few changes to textures, but for the most part, Minecraft maintains a classic and iconic look. You may want new textures at times though; fortunately, there are tons of texture packs available online. As long as Minecraft has existed, people have been creating new mods and texture packs.
In this guide, we are going to go over downloading and using a texture pack. Doing so does not require you to download any additional programs. Overall, just make sure you have enough room on your computer. Many texture packs take up a lot of room, and you definitely don't want to run out of space on your PC. Remember, this guide is specific to those who play the Java edition of Minecraft.
Updated May 24, 2023, by Sean Murray: New textures can add an entirely new element of immersion to your Minecraft experience, so we've updated this guide with better formatting to make finding and downloading texture packs a little easier.
Create A Folder For Your Chosen Texture Pack
Prior to downloading a texture pack, you will need to create a folder for the pack to download into. For this guide, we are going to be working with the Overflow texture pack, so our folder will be named 'MC Overflow Texture Pack.'
Feel free to download any texture pack of your choosing, and name the folder whatever you'd like. Later, we will go over some recommended texture packs that you can download.
Download A Texture Pack
With your folder ready, it's time to download a texture pack. There are several websites that allow you to download texture packs, with Planet Minecraft being one of the most popular. Here you can find a lot of texture packs, as well as reviews for each one.
If you are trying to find the right texture pack for you, remember to read reviews and look at ratings, as not all texture packs are created equally!
Once you have found a texture pack that you like, download it and save it in your newly created folder.
Extract Files
You should have a folder with a zipped version of the pack inside. Right-click on the .zip and select "Extract Here." Doing this will cause the file to unzip, adding additional items to the folder. Once the file has completely unzipped, you can delete the original .zip file.
You should now have your folder with several files that make up the texture pack, like in the image above. Now, copy the entire folder. If you saved the folder to your desktop, simply right-click and press "Copy."
Open Minecraft Options
It's time to open Minecraft now! This step can either be done in the game, or from the main menu.
From the settings menu, select 'Options.' This will direct you to another screen with eight options. Here, you will select 'Resource Packs.'
Paste The Texture Pack Folder
The resource pack panel will have two columns, with a button at the bottom that says 'Open Pack Folder.' Clicking on this button will open a new file explorer window. Paste the folder you copied earlier here.
As soon as you paste the folder, the texture pack will become available to select.
Choosing Your Texture Pack
After the folder has been pasted, you can exit the file explorer window. Now, you should see your new texture pack in the left-hand column.
In the image above, you can see that the texture pack is red. This means that is not fully compatible with the version of Minecraft that you are currently playing on. That's okay! The texture pack may not include certain items but overall, you should still be able to comfortably use it.
When you hover over the texture pack, you will see an arrow pointing to the right. Clicking on this arrow will cause the texture pack to appear on the right where the selected packs are. Above, you can see a texture pack already selected. If this is the case, you will want to move any texture packs that are currently in use to the "Available" column to deselect them.
The default option will always be in the selected section, so you can just leave it as it is. Make sure that your downloaded texture pack remains above the default option.
With the new texture pack at the top of the "Selected" column, press "Done!" Minecraft will reload, and the new texture pack will be applied.
Recommended Texture Packs
Now that you know how to install a texture pack, let's look at a few texture packs that we recommend. In this guide, we utilized the Overflow texture pack, which can be found here.
- Faithful 32x32 Texture Pack
- Default 3D Texture Pack
- Chroma Hills Texture Pack
- Depixel Texture Pack
- Sphax PureBDCraft Texture Pack
That's all there is to know about installing a texture pack. It can be a bit difficult at first, especially if you are not used to downloading various packs or mods. As with downloading anything on the internet, be careful!
Prior to downloading a pack, do as much research as you can; downloading anything from the internet can have risks. Remember, only download a texture pack if you are comfortable downloading these files. Minecraft is still fun, even if you play with default textures.