Visit www.prestashop.com to get your free copy of PrestaShop. Click on the Download PrestaShop option. Fill in the very brief registration information and click on the big blue button. Finally click on the Download button and you should have a zipped file called prestashop_1.x.x.x.zip, where x.x.x is the version of PrestaShop you have downloaded. The version number you have doesn't matter. As long as you follow the download link from the PrestaShop home page, you will have the latest stable version.
In the next tutorial, we will upload all the loose unzipped files to your web server. It is worth pointing out that you might save some time by uploading the zipped file and then using your web host's file manager to do the unzipping. As most web hosts use a slightly different system, I will guide you through by unzipping first. But if you know how to use your web hosts file manager to do this, then you could save a short wait while uploading. You decide. Unzip it now to prepare for the next guide and you will be left with a folder called prestashop.
Now that you have downloaded and unzipped the PrestaShop files, it's time to put them onto your website ready to install. If you are hosting at home, this is a simple matter of putting them in the Apache home folder (see my downloadable guide if you're unsure where this is).
If you are developing on a live server, then you need to transfer the files via FTP. Let's do that step by step.