to save you a trip (like I'm an expert of something..;). It is possible to make characters and figures, but you will have to learn a lot of Poser stuff to do that...there's loads of characters out there in Freebies at 'rosity, so load up..;)

Here's what I (and some others do)... I make a temp directory (creatively called 'temp' in my case..;)
direct Winzip to unzip files (or if in XP just copy and paste the files out of the zip file) into the temp directory.
Once you have a load of zip files done, see if you've got a directory/folder in there called Runtime.
If so, you're doing well. If not, you probably have a bunch of other folders named for various products, which have a Runtime folder in them as well. Copy this out into the temp folder so that you put both Runtimes in the same place.

It will honk at you that you might overwrite something, but unless you downloaded the same thing twice, you should be fine.

Once everything's been moved into the Runtime folder, you can repeat moving the Runtime folder out of 'temp', and into Poser. I'm not sure where Runtime is in versions past 5, but you can search using your operating systems' search feature. Just copy it to the same folder that Runtime is in, then you'll get the warning message again, but you should be fine.

Another tip - when you wind up downloading things, there's 2 items to check.

1. the word 'for'. For means that it doesn't work unless you've already got what 'for' is for.
   For example - for Victoria 4 means you need to download Victoria 4 (from Daz 3d, the base model is free), or you won't see anything happen, except for clothing hanging in midair, or missapplied to some other character.

2. When you realize how much good stuff is out there for free (I have 21,000 free items loaded into Poser, and I'm not the largest collector by any means...;) You'll go crazy and download a few hundred. Six months later, when you're trying to organize, or just remember the cool outfit you saw, you may have trouble sorting it out (Unless you get one of the databases in Freebies here, or just stubbornly write your own, like I have...;).

What I do is rename the zip file to -    Sitename_Character_whatitis_therestleavenormal.
Sitename - where you found it. Daz 3d, Sixus1, Most, and hundreds of other good sites
Character- V4, M4, A3, etc. These are Daz 3d characters, base models free. You can make up
                  your own
whatitis - character, clothes, hair, morph, whatever
therest - what the zip was originally called.

This has been a lot of help to me over the years, to figure out if I actually have something, or where to find it if I don't, etc.

Hope this helps.

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)