Cant Get Galaxy Forge

What exactly do you mean by "can't get it"? It doesn't run? Throws an error?

I download it, then extract it to the mods folder (C:\Documents and settings\<YOUR USERNAME>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods\)

After that, it doesnt show up anywhere in the game.  I cant find it anywhere.  Did I download it to the right place?

Oh, sorry. Well first, it's not a mod so you shouldn't extract it there. It's a separate program .exe that you can run from anywhere. The download pack has a bunch of folders when you extract the .rar, there should be a Galaxy Forge folder with the .exe in there.

Note that you do need the .NET Framework 2.0 to run it. You can check your version by going to add/remove programs and it will show up. If you don't have it listed there, you'll need to grab the distributable off Microsoft's site. 2.0 is pretty old, think the latest is 3.5 and it works fine.

But yeah, Galaxy Forge won't show up anywhere in game, since it's separate

Thanks.  Out of curiosity, the fact that I dont have .net 2.0, is that why I cant downlaod mods also?

Nope, that's got nothing to do with it. What issues are you having with downloading mods?

For some reason, the mods I downlaod dont show up in the mod folder.  I downlaod them then extract them to the right place, but nothing happens.

Double check the folder structure, it's very important. It should look something like this (excuse the crappy formatting :P)

\Mods\

    \ModName\

           \GameInfo

           \String

           ...

The "ModName" folder is what the game looks for when it's displaying mods in Options > Mods, and inside it needs to have all the appropriate folders, depending on what the mod needs. GameInfo, String, Window, Textures, Particle, whatever - depends on the mod.

That must be my problem. I downlaod it to:

C:\Documents and settings\<YOUR USERNAME>\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods

There are no folders located within the mod folder.  Can I simply create them?

Well all mods come in an archive (rar, zip, etc). Did you extract it? (sorry, I know it's a dumb question, but I need to be clear :))

Your path is correct, and if you extracted there but don't have the folders, check your archiver app and make sure that it's set to extract Folders & Path names. Unless whoever made the mod did a sloppy job packaging it, it should already be set up in appropriate folders and paths and all you should have to do is extract it into \Mods

I dont know how to check my archiver app.  However, I have downloaded mods for other games and have never had the problems I am having for this game. 

What are you using to extract the mod?

I download it/save it to the desktop, then I right click and press "send to compressed folder"

That command just zips it again - (you should notice that the "folder" icon at your destination has a zipper).

Instead double click on the archive to open it in whatever program (or windows) and choose to "extract" the contents to your target location.