I had the same problem
(running win98se).

This is what I did to fix it.

1. Delete limewire folder
2. Run regedit, ctrl+f (find)
3. search for "limewire" (without quotation marks)
4. Delete all reg keys and reg dir's associated with limewire (I.E. find, delete, "f3" {find again...}, delete, until it is no more)
5. Install v2.98
6. Run limewire

Note: I get v2.98 to run, but now it takes a few minutes to execute, previous versions never did that.

Your results may vary.