(Be sure to have the Sims 2 Clean Installer. It should say if you want to install them into your game. First save the Sim or Lot to your desktop, or the destination where you first save the downloads before extracting them.
SIMS AND LOTS DO NOT GO IN THE DOWNLOADS FOLDER LIKE CLOTHES, HAIR, ETC. If you were downloading a Sim or a house/community lot, make sure you INSTALL IT INTO THE GAME. If your downloading from xmsims, click on the photo of the download you want, and you'll get the download window.)Ĥth.
Make sure if it says you need to download a mesh from a site, you download it! (It should say if you need a mesh in the 'Downloads' tab at modthesims2. Make sure you READ ABOUT THE DOWNLOAD! Make sure you have the correct games and expansions, the right meshes, and so on. You have to extract them using WinRAR or another kind of extracting program. Once you download them, don't just throw the file into the Downloads folder. Make sure you extracted the files correctly. Make sure your Downloads folder (which should be located in Users\(Current User Account)\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads.) has a capital 'D'. Well this question's really out of date, but if anyone still needs help I can try.