2) Unzip the folder. Again, make sure you are unzipping it to a place where you will easily be able to find it.

3) Double click on the unzipped folder. All the contents of this folder, the skn. files, the cmx. files,
and the bmp. files, are all you are interested in, not the SeeME which just contains user information.
Those are the files that will make your Sim work. The Seeme file contains useful information, but is not needed to make the skin work. Select all of the skn., cmx., and bmp., files. Copy or cut these.

4) Go into "My Computer" (there should be an icon on your desktop). Go into your C drive. Scroll through the folders untill you see "Program Files". Double click on that and open it up. Then look for the "Maxis" folder. Open that up. Open "The Sims" File. Open "Game Data". Open "Skins". (this only works if you installed The Sims to your C Drive, which is the default installation. If you didn't, go to the drive where the game was installed, and continue with the
directions beginning with the "Maxis" folder.) This is where the directions C: Maxis/TheSims/Gamedata/Skins comes from.

You should see a list of files that are similar in type as the ones from the folder you unzipped and cut/copied the contents out of. This is where you paste the contents of the unzipped folder.

5) Crank up the sims and enjoy.

SHORTCUT:

1) After the zip file is unzipped, double click on the folder to open it and minimize it down to your taskbar.

2) Get into your C drive and locate the Maxis/The Sims/ Gamedata/ Skins folder and open that in another explorer window.
(Directions for locating that are in step 4 above)

3) Restore both windows, adjusting them size-wize so that they both fit on the screen. Copy/ cut everything on the unzipped folder window (except the readme) so you can paste or drag each file over:

4) Iinto the Skins window. Done.

Once all of this is done, you don't need the zip file or the unzipped file anymore, unless you want an archive of
skins for backup or something. They can be disposed of as you see fit.

Also, sometimes, a window may come up asking you if you would like to replace a file with the same name as the file you are trying to paste in. The files are the same, or updated, so it's ok to write over them, provided you downloaded both files from the same site. If not, you may have a conflict of file names and numbers to deal with. It's safest to deal with only a few sites for this reason.

Hot Date SkinsBuy Folder

Now that you know about looking around for the Maxis directory, the Skinsbuy folder is in the C:Maxis/TheSims/Gamedata/Expansionpack3/Skinsbuy folder. Here's a picture of what the directory structure looks like in the Explorer. I've highlighted the important part.

The skins that I've made for this folder are in the unzipped folder marked "skinsbuy". I just did it that way to separate them for you, so don't freak out. :) Simply take the .cmx, .skn and/or .bmp files out of this download folder and paste them into the one in the Maxis folder. Not much mystery here.

Happy gaming!