Help me please!

So I downloaded SL to my other computer, that doesn't work too well, and the icon is on the desktop and it works fine and everything. But whenever I try to download it onto my new computer (this one), at the start of the installation process I'm told that 'the publisher cannot be recognised', and then, once I do get the icon onto my desktop, whenever I click it, it doesn't work, and this message appears on my screen:-

"Runtime Error!

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information."

I haven't got a clue as to what I'm supposed to do. It's starting to make me really mad. Could someone help me please.

EDIT - I can't go on the other computer at all at the moment either, so this is stopping me from going on SL all together

This is very odd. Just to be sure: this is the regular client viewer, right? I mean, the one from Linden Lab, downloaded from http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php ?

Also, what operating system are we dealing with here? (Windows XP? Vista?... and 32- or 64-bit?)

I'm doing it in the exact same way I was doing it on my other computer, when I could go on that one. Only on this computer it always refuses to work.

Erm, about the operating system, I'm almost 100% sure it's Windows XP, and I have no idea if it's a 32 or a 64 bit, I'm awful with computers I'm afraid. I can tell you a bit about my computer if that'll help you work it out. It's a very new laptop (my mum got it 2007 I believe), its' make is acer, and I am actually positive it's Windows XP, hope that helps you to work out what bit it is.

Okay, probably 32-bit XP, which is cool. (Except it means I've got no excuses for having no clue why this is happening to you.)

What I'd try first is to uninstall SecondLife: it comes with a little uninstaller that should be findable in the Start menu / All Programs / Second Life / Uninstall Second Life; it's not as thorough as one might wish, but should be fine for our purposes here. And then download a fresh copy of the installer again from the website and try installing again. At the moment, I'm guessing the downloaded file was just corrupted somewhere along the way.

The bad news is that it may never run well on that laptop, or it may, but it should never exit in the way you're experiencing, and once we get the thing running we'll figure out how to make it as usable as possible.

One other possibly related thing: http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-2610 ... it's not a perfect match with the symptoms described here, but it does mention Acer hardware specifically, and a runtime error. There's a hint in the comments that temporarily switching the screen resolution to 800x600 gets the SecondLife viewer to start. Then resize the SecondLife window to fit, and then change the screen resolution back to whatever's native for the panel. But that may be a completely different problem.

Ok thanks, I've uninstalled it now, so, I try installing it again as I did before I take it?

Oh btw, when I begin to download the installer, should I click run, or save? I simply clicked run on my other computer and it downloaded it and worked fine. Is this what I should do?

P.S. - Sorry, I'm awful with computers

I think you need to clear your browser's cache and re-download the client. Also, to be absolutely sure you're getting the right one, just browse to this URL to download it:
http://get.secondlife.com
That link will pick the right version for your operating system.

"I think you need to clear your browser's cache and re-download the client"

I'm sorry, what does this mean? Honestly I'm really bad with computers, I started cutting out of IT class so I completely failed lol.

I think either URL should get the same installer downloaded. I always pick "Save" instead of "Run"--in theory, that shouldn't matter either, but it's an old habit from days of flaky connections. If you do "Save" it, the file should end up somewhere obvious (probably the desktop, depending on browser settings) and you can run it from there.

Good luck, and keep us informed on how it's going.

I just tried again using the link provided by Wildefire Walcott, I clicked save as you suggested, and so I downloaded the SL installer fine, but after the installer was downloaded, a message came up saying something like 'Publisher cannot be verified'. It talked about something to do with the publisher of the installer couldn't be verified.

So anyway, when I tried the icon on my desktop the same message came up, it didn't work

That message you are getting is probably a Windows message telling you that the program you are installing has not been verified by Microsoft. Just ignore and install anyway. The vast majority of programs in the world are not verified by Microsoft.

You probably have your security settings set high.........which is fine except that you will get annoying pop ups like that often.

Not sure where this one stands now. I understood before that the Installer fussed about "publisher can't be verified" but eventually completed anyway and put a SecondLife shortcut icon on the desktop, but that running this installed program generated a "runtime error" and terminated.

Assuming that's all correct, then I'd try the magic mentioned above: setting the screen resolution to 800x600 first, and trying to run SecondLife again.

What puzzles me about all this is that it seems the runtime error is happening very early--before we even get the SecondLife login screen. So, if the screen resolution voodoo doesn't work, I'd suggest looking at the contents of the directory C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\SecondLife\logs to see what files are there, and maybe to look inside to see if they say anything informative. (Be careful what you post from those files: they contain some RL information we shouldn't know about--like your Windows username and possibly IP addresses and stuff like that.)