What environment are you working from?  This should be simple if your files are within whatever environment you are working from.  I do everything on a remote server but in the Solutions Explorer I just double click the Starter Kit Zip file and then There is a VS Content file that you click and it runs.  After that you right-click the Parent node inside the Solutions Explorer and click " Add new item" and it will present a mod template and skin template and that's a sign everything went well.  Sounds like those zip files are somewhere else in another environment.  Dont unzip them manually, just click on the main zip Starter Kit within the Solutions Explorer.  Hope that helps.