I apologize for my delayed response, and sincerely appreciate the great community here for their responses.

I feel like a fool for not noticing the "install from zip" option earlier. Using that method worked for me. Previously I had installed the files in my "program files/smith micro/poser pro 2012/runtime" directory, which did not work.  

For future reference for anyone else who stumbles upon this thread, I'm running Windows 8 Pro (64 bit). It's actually on a Microsoft Surface Pro. 

Thanks again for all those who responded with the very helpful information.