I just started playing and am having some real problems. First off HOW do I leave the game without losing everything. I have to ctrl/alt/del to get out of the game. I started off the game in a crashed ship and am having a real problem trying to figure out what to do. :( . I keep losing me health which is driving me nuts. Where can I get a book of direction or something that will help me figure out what I am doing. Most of the time I cannot fix my health. Thank you ever so much :)

if you want to save enter your ship and than leave the ship than the save is done but 1 thing keep track of your time of save ok try it than you know how it works i do that all the time

The actual "Quit Game" button, if you can't find that (you had to ctrl-alt-del?) is under the "Options" menu ( https://i.imgur.com/DQYBxyG.jpg )

The first steps (.... and the rest of the game sorry) is to repair the ship etc. If you lose health because the planet is hazardous etc, jump into the ship and let your Hazard suit rest up. I think you get full health as well.
Use your beam gun on rocks, plants, stuff to collect resources for repairing

If you are far away from your ship and there's hazardous weather, find something with a ceiling, like a building, a cave (or later on if you've got the grenade launcher, make a cave if you need one!)

There should be tutorial message telling you what to do in the bottom right corner popping up ever so often

Your game is saved when you find beacons near buildings that you can enter (the green "?" icon when you Scan will be the save point, until you save...), or when you jump out of your ship. (not in, I think)

Here's some help for the first steps (starts about half way down the page)
http://gameranx.com/features/id/68445/article/no-mans-sky-beginners-guide/

It`s been a while since I was at the start, but most of this is accurate as are the above from others.

1. Never stay far from your ship. You can jump back in it any time your exosuit warns that it`s nearly down.

2. Pay attention to the instructions on the bottom right.

3. Use your multi-tool (gun) to shoot various rocks and plants that contain the resources you need.

4. Check your ship, READ what it says you need to fix stuff, like the pulse engines and thrusters (these MUST be repaired).

5. Once the thrusters and pulse engines are fixed you can take off. Or stay and fix the rest.

6. The exit or Quit is in the options menu, just take your time and look.

7. Most of all, be patient. Your issues are only due to a lack of it.

Nobody says how you get to the Options menu, press the P key.

Escape works as well. Yea, forgot that.

Make sure you always have some plutonium and zinc on you at all times.
Don't rely on having to find some on a planet you first land on. Always have some with you, never let them run out.

If you, for any reason, have walked/run a bit far from your ship but you have found a station with one of these strange pylons, you can call your ship to this position.
Also works with the landing pods at the traders: each landing pod has some kind of a tablet: use it to call your ship.

Drop pods: these are the question marks (green circle) >>> visit them, because they have new suits, most containing 1+ space.
If you have an atlas pass, you also find new suits behind these early on barred doors.

First and foremost: take your time!

I don't remember if the Scanner works when you first start off. If it works, do a scan and look for the yellow icons that pop up. That's Zinc which you can use to recharge your environmental protection thing. I'm not sure what it's called in the game.

Or you can keep going into your ship. The problem with that is you won't be able to stray far from your ship which you most likely need to do in order to get the materials to repair your ship.

I wonder if you had the misfortune of starting off on a planet that has a very tough environment.

yep a real bad enviornment. ! How can I tell what I'll need and won't need. I'm getting all sorts of items but no idea if I'll ever need them. I also have found ALL these different upgrades I can do but have no idea how to bring them up if I do find all the necessary ingrediants to make them. And figuring out if they are a good or bad upgrade. I wish this game was made a little more direct. I never did like games that give you hundreds of various items and you don't know if they will be necessary later or not and no room to store anything :(

Just do one at a time. Figure out something you want to do. Or don't really worry about it all that much. Only thing you need to keep going is the ingredients for the warp cores, basically.

Oh, and it is possible to max out cannons, shields, warp-reactors and pulse-jets on a 24 slot ship, and still have some free slots for thamium, heridium and plutonium. So it's not necessary to build every upgrade to reach the biggest stars or get the longest jump-distances. So not really that important to get more slots after a while.

And if you put the similar upgrades next to each other, you get an extra bonus. Very useful for the pulse-jet upgrades, since they also increase your maneuverability, on top of the bonus you get from having a non-freighter ship, etc. Can pay off to link a theta upgrade to the main device as well, since it gives an extra flat bonus for the extra chainlink.

And always dismantle the upgrades you want to keep before getting a new ship or multitool...unless that new ship or multitool already has those upgrades.

Hmmm? Why would you not dismantle if the new ship has the upgrades? I always dismantle everything before switching. More raw materials never hurt.

Here is one important thing to keep in mind though: When you get a new ship, keep all upgrades until you find the next ship wreck. Inspect the new ship wreck and only dismantle the ugrades in your old ship, once you know that you want to switch.

The reason: The upgrades that are pre-installed in ship wrecks depend on the upgrades you currently have. Ship wrecks will have about the same upgrades that your current ship has (maybe even one or two more). They may be damaged but they are there. Once you inspected a ship wreck, the upgrades in that wreck are set, so that's when you can dismantle the ones in your old ship.
That way, you can not only farm inventory slots with ship wrecks but also upgrades.

Note: It doesn't matter whether upgrades in your ship are damaged or not. So if you know that you are just searching for the next ship wreck, there is no need to bother to repair everything.