Is there an EASY manner to get rid of content that I'll never use? Other than searching for all aspects of each content and deleting each aspect manually? There's a lot of "free" content that I find that I'd never use.

Easy? No, I'm afraid. However, if you have P3DO Explorer installed, you can branch down the hierarchy to associated files. There is a free version available so you don't need to layout extra cash just to clean up your runtime.

What I did was make a new runtime and install into it everything that I DO use. I found that much easier.

Use a script to run through your file to search for file references,

from there look at the folder names and determine if they contain anything you need,

if not, delete them

from __future__ import print_function 
import os
import os.path

class _dialogs:
    def get_folder( self, start = "" ):
        style = ( wx.DD_DEFAULT_STYLE | wx.DD_NEW_DIR_BUTTON )
        dialog = wx.DirDialog( None, 'Select a Folder ', start , style )
        return dialog.GetPath() if dialog.ShowModal() == wx.ID_OK else False

ignore_exts = ( ".png", ".xmp", ".obj" )
searchfolder = _dialogs().get_folder()  
list_of_files = os.listdir( searchfolder )
for file in list_of_files:
    file = os.path.join( searchfolder, file )
    print( file )
    if not file.endswith( ignore_exts ):
        try:
            with open( file, "r" ) as lines:
                for line in lines:
                    if "runtime" in line.lower(): 
                        print( line )
        except:
            continue

**This does not take into account compressed files

This script works with both normal and gzipped files

from __future__ import print_function 
import gzip
import os
import os.path
import sys

# =====================================================
class _dialogs:
    def get_folder( self, start = "" ):
        style = ( wx.DD_DEFAULT_STYLE | wx.DD_NEW_DIR_BUTTON )
        dialog = wx.DirDialog( None, 'Select a Folder ', start , style )
        return dialog.GetPath() if dialog.ShowModal() == wx.ID_OK else False
# =====================================================
def read_lines( lines, isgzipped, references = [] ):
    if isgzipped:
        lines = lines.split("\n")
    for line in lines:
        if "Runtime" in line.title():
            if not line.lstrip() in references:
                references.append( line.lstrip() )
    return references
# =====================================================
def has_extension( object_type ):
    try:
        ext = os.path.splitext( object_type )[1]
    except:
        ext = None
    if ext:
        return True 
    else:
        return False
# =====================================================
def is_gz_file(filepath):
    with open(filepath, 'rb') as check_gz_status:
        return check_gz_status.read(2) == b'\x1f\x8b'
# =====================================================
def print_references( references ):
    if references:
        for ref in references:
            print( ref.rstrip() )
# =====================================================
def legal_file_types():
    return  ('.pz3','.cr2','.pz2','.pp2','.hr2','.fc2','.hd2','.lt2','.cm2','.mt5','.mc6',
        '.pzz','.crz','.p2z','.ppz','.hrz','.fcz','.hdz','.ltz','.cmz','.mz5','.mcz')
# =====================================================
use_exts = legal_file_types()
searchfolder = _dialogs().get_folder()  
underline = '-'*30
references = []
sysop = False
# =====================================================
if searchfolder:
    list_of_files = os.listdir( searchfolder )
    for file in list_of_files:
        file = os.path.join( searchfolder, file )
        if file.endswith( use_exts ):
            if has_extension( file ):
                if sys.version_info.major == 3:
                    sysop = True
                    print( f"\n\nExamining {file}\n{underline}\n" )
                elif sys.version_info.major == 2:
                    sysop = True
                    print( "\n\nExamining {}\n{}\n".format( file, underline ) )
                else:
                    sysop = False
                    print( "Python 2 or 3 is required to run this file.")
                if sysop:
                    if not is_gz_file( file ):
                        try:
                            with open( file, "r" ) as lines:
                                references = read_lines( lines, False, references )
                                print_references( references )
                        except:
                            continue
                    else:
                        if not file.endswith( ignore_exts ):
                            with gzip.open( file ,'rb' ) as lines:
                                lines = lines.read()
                                lines = lines.decode("utf8")
                                references = read_lines( lines, True )
                                print_references( references )
            references = []
# =====================================================

this gives an output resembling this:

Examining x:\\Poser\\Runtime\\Libraries\\Character\\Creepy Kid Too\\Creepy Kid 2 WM 9+.cr2
------------------------------

figureResFile :Runtime:Geometries:Creepy Kid Too:Creepy Kid Too.obj
textureMap ":Runtime:Textures:Creepy Kid Too:TeethGums.jpg"
file ":Runtime:Textures:Creepy Kid Too:TeethGums.jpg"
textureMap ":Runtime:Textures:Creepy Kid Too:EyesTex.jpg"
file ":Runtime:Textures:Creepy Kid Too:EyesTex.jpg"
reflectionMap ":Runtime:Textures:Creepy Kid Too:EyesTex.jpg"
bumpMap ":Runtime:Textures:Creepy Kid Too:TeethGums.jpg"
textureMap ":Runtime:Textures:Creepy Kid Too:Body.jpg"
file ":Runtime:Textures:Creepy Kid Too:Body.jpg"
file ":Runtime:Textures:Creepy Kid Too:displace.jpg"

Ah... I made that mistake with P_4, greeted 'external runtimes' with much glee. So, now, I've a swathe of mildly organised model folders, each with one model or set's runtime, spread across three drives. I only 'mount' those I need to Poser's library.

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 5:19AM Fri, 05 March 2021 - #4410209

What I did was make a new runtime and install into it everything that I DO use. I found that much easier.

Truly!

NikKelly posted at 7:51AM Fri, 05 March 2021 - #4410652

Ah... I made that mistake with P_4, greeted 'external runtimes' with much glee. So, now, I've a swathe of mildly organised model folders, each with one model or set's runtime, spread across three drives. I only 'mount' those I need to Poser's library.

That's what I do. Each figure gets its own runtime, and I have other runtimes for different themes. (Fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary, horror, animals, nature, etc.) Though so far, it all fits on one (pretty big) drive.

If disk-size, rather than Library-clutter, is the problem then one way is to run the free WinDirStat on your runtimes. It will give you a visual display in which you can easily see the largest files. You can then decide what to do with each big item. Is it connected with content you're ever likely to use? If not, then you delete it or archive it. You can get yourself several Gb of space this way, from a large 20-year runtime. Especially useful for more recent DAZ Studio content, where recent hair meshes and textures can be stupidly large.

Well. Kinda eliminates us using the free content that comes with Poser. I am super picky about what goes into my Runtimes. Therefore, unless Rendo breaks that Free! content down into individual items, I don't even download it any more. Of course, THEY do install a bit of mashup crap when you install Poser. :(

You can download it selectively from https://www.posersoftware.com/downloads/content (with your serial number). Then install in a new runtime. Not using it? Delete the runtime. Easy.

I do find it annoying that every version of Poser wants to install all the old content in a new runtime. I already have multiple versions of that, please stop. Not sure whether Poser 12 has an option to just install all the new stuff.

Just upgraded to vers 12 after much difficulty and find that most of the content including recently purchased items will not load. Under the Purchases tab the download bar goes to 100% and then reverts to the Reinstall bar. This happens repeatedly. Help and suggestions greatly appreciated. I have too much money invested to quit now.

When content is installed, it switches to reinstall to show it's been installed but gives you a chance to reinstall it if you need to.

In the top line, the garden patio installed, but Poser didn't know what to do with the template. If you click on the manually install, it will open explorer to allow you to open the zip file to extract the template. the second line installed without a problem.

Thank you for a clearly presented answer!