Custom Sims don't show

[Wembeley]

I was having a lot of problems with AL so I uninstalled it and re-installed it.  I did the whole backup thing and that worked for my custom objects but I have no more custom sims, that window is empty.  I've tried re-installing them but they still don't show.  I've got the settings set up correctly to show custom content, I've deleted cache files, etc. and nothing works.  Frankly, other than a little fun I had at first with witches, I don't really like apartment life so I guess I could just uninstall it but before I go to that extreme I thought I'd see if anyone has any ideas.

[Wembeley]

I also should have mentioned that not only do I not have any custom sims showing but not even the sims that come with the game are in the window.  It's completely blank.  Also, maybe this is a Windows Vista problem but I tried to delete all custom content and when I do a search for downloads folders and my documents folders a large list comes up but when I try to delete them I get the message that the folders do not exist.  If anybody has any ideas I would appreciate it.  I've tried but I just can't enjoy the game without custom sims.