Getting started is enough to baffle most users. It has cartainly baffled me. I give up.

[Slcelia]

Downloading the software there seemed to be a program and a viewer. I could not tell vfior sure that I had successfully installed the viewer.

I read Getting Started and attempted to change my appearance. This told me to click on icon I could not find but may appear only when I enter ssecondlife. It was a while before I saw the faint legend in the top rh corner for this. Clicking it I was told a perorocol was missing..

Hopeless.

[Rolig Loon]

There is only one thing to download and install.  It is the program that we call a viewer, available at https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/?lang=en-US.  Once you download the viewer, it should install automatically.  To run it, you just click on its icon on your desktop.  When the login screen appears, type in the user name and password that you selected when you registered for Second Life.  It should not be any more complicated than that.  Once you are in Second Life, you may change your appearance by following the instructions on that Getting Started page.

[Marigold Devin]

Welcome to Second Life and Second Life Answers.

Yes, you are right, getting started can be a very baffling process.

The icon to which the text is referring is the one that appears on your desktop when you have got the Second Life Viewer installed. 

And it seems you have got the viewer installed, and are getting a message now when you try to log in of "protocol missing" or something?

Second Life isn't for everyone, but if you aren't quite ready to give up yet, it may be that you are getting the protocol message which is preventing you from logging into Second Life, because you need to configure your firewall to allow access.

If you wish to add more to this thread, you can do so by clicking on "options" at the top right hand side of your original post to "edit".

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Slcelia and welcome to SL and SL Forums. Slowly you will learn everything. Don't worry about that. We knew nothing our first day in SL also. Please check out the following links:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Second-Life-Quickstart/ta-p/1087919

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Introduction-to-Viewer-version-3-2/ta-p/1238073

For everything you need you can ask here in forums or other residents in world.

Have fun and enjoy your new Second Life.