Hello freegold,
OK now I understand ...you have a desktop or laptop with a integrated graphic chip like an Intel HD 4000.
So the best that you can do is to mine using your CPU.
For this you have to use CPU miner, you can find all the details here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=55038.msg654850#msg654850Binaries for Windows:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cpuminer/files/pooler-cpuminer-2.3.2-win32.zip (32-bit)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cpuminer/files/pooler-cpuminer-2.3.2-win64.zip (64-bit)
Once it's done, solo mining with a CPU will take an eternity to find a block so like you did, join a pool.
Now let's presume your sign in account is freegold, you have to create a worker for each computer that you will use to mine.
Let's call it : computer1 and the password : x
So next, unzip the downloaded CPU miner:
with win 64 bits you will have this folder : pooler-cpuminer-2.3.2-win64 and inside the folder 4 files ( libcurll.dll, minerd.exe, pthread ... and zlib1)
Now create a text file, like "file.txt", open or edit you file and type:
minerd -a scrypt -t 4 -s 6 -o stratum+tcp://pool.us.hackshard.com:3341 -O freegold.computer1:x
Save it, the last thing ...you have to rename the file.txt with a .bat extension so it will become file.bat
double click on the file : file.bat (of course you can name it voltminer.bat or whatever) and normally you will start mining.
Voilą, i did my best of course you can notice that english is not my native language but I think it s not too hard to follow