I've had the same struggle, trying loads of skin textures that seemed promising but were either not pale enough or washed out.  Maybe one of RawArts albino characters?

Can you reload your layout (Window > Workspace)?

Do you mean (1) there's no menubar (the words File, etc.), (2) no toolbar with icons just below the menubar, or (3) no viewport controls? Are the other toolbars there?

Dynamic Clothing Control still works for me in DS 4.15

Some content creators may not own Poser, or may feel they do not have the skills or the time to make a Poser version which meets their standards.

F2 > Interface > Splash Screen, change to Alternate

It sounds like either you have security software getting in the way, or else you have malware. What security software are you using?

The textures that come in Genesis 3 Female Essentials are in /Runtime/Textures/Raiya/Jeane/

If you're using DAZ Install Manager, you would use the same path whether you are installing Poser-format content or DS-format content.  There are two special folders whivch must be directly underneath the folder you designate as a content folder for DS to handle its files correctly:  Data and Runtime.  DS will not display Poser-format files if they are outside of Runtime, nor will it display DS-format folders if they are inside Runtime (although if there is a matching Poser-format file it will use the DS-format file instead and display the Poser-format file with a scroll symbol in the upper left corner).

It's also worth noting that 3Delight has been updated as well, so even if you decide not to use Iray there are rendering improvements.

Copy the folder with the mats from Runtime:Libraries:Materials to Runtime:Libraries:Pose.

Rename the .mc6 files to .pz2

Open each .pz2 in a text editor.  I use Notepad++, which can edit multiple files and let you make global changes in all of them.  The 6th line in each will read:

mtlCollection

Change that line to read:

figure

Save the files and start DS, and it will now be able to see them.

DS 2.3 does not see the Poser Materials Library or .mc6 files.  You would need to convert them to .pz2 files and move them to the Pose library.

Thanks that answers my question. I just dont understand why Daz would split the market like this I cannot be good for anyone

What makes you think DAZ is responsible for Smith-Micro deciding to make their implementation of weight-mapping incompatible with DAZ Studio's?

PoserWorld still has a lot for the older figures.

Quote - Can I still use the Custom categories feature in DS 4.6 Pro?

Yes.  Use the "Content DB Maintenance > Export User Data" function to back-up your custom categories.  It can take a long time if you have a lot of data -- I categorize everything my own way, and it can take 30-45 minutes to export, and I've heard from someone who has several hundred GB's of content that it takes over an hour for him.

Aside from giving you a back-up, this saves only the relative file locations.  So you can then reset your content database, split up your runtimes (making sure you add each new location to DS's list), and Re-Import Metadata (you can choose to import just the User Data if you don't want DAZ' default metadata also), and while importing the user data it will figure out which of the multiple runtimes each item is in.