Getting started with Mist Wallet
Detailled and up-to-date information on installing MIST can be found in the MIST repository on git: https://github.com/ethereum/mist. There are two "branches" of MIST: the first, the experimental MIST Browser (still in developement, current version 0.3.6) is an environment to launch DApps; the second is the MIST Wallet. You will need the MIST Wallet.
- Go to Download page: https://github.com/ethereum/mist/releases
- Download the latest package of the MIST wallet for the operating system of your choice
- Unzip the contents of the archive
- Start the executable (Ethereum-Wallet)
- Synchronize with the Main Network (Homestead)
After starting the executable, a splash screen will appear. You can click on "Skip peer search" to start the application directly, otherwise you will have to wait until geth downloads the entire blockchain database. Depending on your computer hardware and bandwidth this can take some hours.
Current development is being done on the Morden blockchain, which is the official test-network of the Ethereum Foundation. Select the option via the menu at Develop > Network > Testnet(Morden). After some time, a progress bar appears and you can watch the synchronization progress as it downloads all missing blocks (about 825,000 at the time of this writing). So be patient!