Hello, I have been reading these forums for a while now, finally decided to get serious.  I noticed one post from a Senior member about bitminter and I clicked on the link, registered and went to download their software but I got a message saying that this type of software can harm your computer so I discarded it.  Can anyone tell me if it is ok to use this software and what exactly it will do to my computer?  I wanted to get started somehow, I tried other miner pools like slush and btc but they weren't working.  Then I noticed lately that CPU & GPU mining is dead.  So, I am at an impasse as to how I should proceed.  One thing I did notice on my bitminter dashboard was that the computational power was 312.49 Thps and from what I have read so far, I am led to believe that that is for the total pool.  Is this a correct assumption?  Anyway, if anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.  I can't wait to go to Vancouver and use the BTC ATM!  

EDIT:  LOL, NOOB alert!  I went back to the the link I saw for Bitminter posted by aficionadog: 

The easiest way is to start with the Bitminter (https://bitminter.com/), easy to install and simple enough to understand. Make sure to download and install the Silabs drivers first: http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx

The only problem with the Bitminter is that you have to join and mine with the Bitminter pool.

I then click on the Silabs drivers link and I assume I need to download the driver that's applicable to my operating system, is that correct?  Thanks for anyone's help.