I've not had the same problems, but like yourself have all the EPs and SPs. The only hacks we have in common are Inteen and Insim, however I think I've seen references (don't remember where) to Inteen having some problems with some flavour packs, which ones I don't know. Also there are some hacks and/or mods that alter data in the config folder, which may or may not be the case in what you are experiencing. I agree with Joy, pull the CC and see what happens.

Monique's SunLight computer also lets you study and achieve all badges and levels. The boolprop cheat "testingcheatsenabled true" will let you shift+left click and the spawn selection appears, page through until you see "badge juicer", select that and what looks like a toy boat will appear near the sim. This can be used to select whatever badge in the game you want. Just remember to set the testingcheatsenabled back to false.

I don't know how many downloads I have, several thousand, not as many as Hidden, but mine take up about 4.5 gb in the download folder. The SC4, paintings, and so forth are way smaller.

That was a bit brief and simplified, but you get the idea. It's all about copyright protection.

It is a copyright protection system encoded into CDs that logs into the Windows registry and prevents unlicensed  copies of a disk to be made. The problem is that with software, such as a game, it has a limit number for installations. That limit is not reset if you unistall and re-install, so you could find yourself unable to re-install at some point. However, this seems to be a problem with the newer version of Securom, not the older. So avoid the FT patch, if you can. It comes in the patch, the game CD has the older version.

Me too, I had one with a two-story detached garage with stairs up to an empty room with a smaller room off of it. I put in some arcade games, a pool table and made the smaller room a bathroom. Worked out pretty well.

I usually download from MTS2 but don't have Q-Xpress, I just save the zip or rar file. Then I use WinZip to extract to the downloads folder (or other if appropriate). MTS2 also has a clean installer that will handle rar files you save and it will check for problems with hacks as well as install to the proper folders. I am assuming you have the "enable custom content" box checked at start-up, as well.

Also, if the patch is creating problems for windows, it may be the securom software itself that is the problem.

I don't really know. I've not downloaded the patch because I hear nothing but bad things about it. Maybe try to copy your entire EA folder and sub-folders and uninstall the game, then re-istall it and restore the copied folders in place of the ones the game creates first time it runs, and don't download the patch. This may or may not work depending on where the patch makes it's changes. I have the game on both XP and VISTA, and will take your messages as additional warnings to avoid the patch. Good luck!

Only way in Sims 2 is to play the other lot and invite the sim over. The data I've seen so far on Sims 3 (due out next year) is that this function may be part of that game.

There used to be a mod added for Night Life - showHeadlines on/off - that is supposed to make the thought bubbles invisible. I've not tried that myself so can't say for sure. On MTS2 there is a mod "Fourth Wall" that is supposed to stop sims from looking at you. Again, I've not personally tried it so I don't know for sure whether or not it works. Good luck!

Nice work, thanks.

Fabulous, Rebecah. Thank you so much. This will really enhance my game.

Maybe this from Symbology might help? "Gypsy - Free Time Genie Delivery Fix
Fixes bug that causes the genie be unable to perform any of her other duties once she has delivered a genie lamp to any family. NOTE: You will need to have the gypsy appear once on the lot and let her deliver one more lamp after installing the fix before she will be 'fixed'".
http://www.simbology.com/mods/ft/Gypsy-FTGenieFix.zip

Sometimes when you enable the custom content for the first time, you  need to enter a neighboorhood and bring up  something, like houses (F2) and then exit the game and restart again enabling the custom content, then the downloads appear.