Create an account. Go to the project's web site, click on Create Account, and fill out the form. You will receive an email containing your account ID (a long random string). Save this email.

Download and install BOINC. Download BOINC for your type of computer, install it, and run it. You will be asked to enter the project's URL and your account ID. That's it!

How it works

When you run BOINC on your PC, it works as follows (see below):

Your PC gets a set of instructions from the project's scheduling server. The instructions depend on your PC: for example, the server won't give it work that requires more RAM than you have. The instructions may include many multiple pieces of work. Projects can support several applications, and the server may send you work from any of them.
Your PC downloads executable and input files from the project's data server. If the project releases new versions of its applications, the executable files are downloaded automatically to your PC.
Your PC runs the application programs, producing output files.
Your PC uploads the output files to the data server.
Later (up to several days later, depending on your work buffer preferences) your PC reports the completed results to the scheduling server, and gets instructions for more work.

This cycle is repeated indefinitely. BOINC does this all automatically; you don't have to do anything.

Credit

The project's server keeps track of how much work your computer has done; this is called credit. To ensure that credit is granted fairly, most BOINC projects work as follows:

Each work unit may be sent to several computers.
When a computer reports a result, it claims a certain amount of credit, based on how much CPU time was used.
When at least two results have been returned, the server compares them. If the results agree, then users are granted the smaller of the claimed credits.

Please keep in mind:

There may be a delay of several days between when your computer reports a result and when it is granted credit for the result. Your User page shows you how much credit is 'pending' (claimed but not granted).
The credit-granting process starts when your computer reports a result to the server (not when it finishes computing the result or uploading the output files).
In rare cases (e.g. if errors occur on one or more computers) you may never receive credit for a computation.

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