OK.

I found a Smith Micro Knowledge Base item which may be referring to a cause of my trouble:
Poser 8 Configuration Error on Start Up

A link in that article takes me to
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)
so that's supposed to be my missing item.  Upon checking in my Control Panel | Programs and Features listing, I can confirm that I do not have this installed on my new Win 7 32-bit (x86) machine.

Eternal Hobbyist