One of the main cause of this problem is that LimeWire can't save the preferences in your user home directory.
If you're on Windows 2000/XP, this folder is:
C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>\
in which the "My documents" folder is located.
LimeWire would like to save its preferences in:
C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>\.limewire\
But it can't because the folder cannot be created, or has its security settings incorrectly set. This may happen on Windows 2000 or XP, if you have lost a system registry, and recovered using the Recovery console. In that case, the users home directories may still have a owner set to a previous Windows account ID.
1) It's difficult to recover on Windows XP Home: you can only do it by booting in Safe mode, and logging in with the "Administrator" account (normally hidden when booting Windows in standard mode).
On Windows XP Pro, you just need to desactivate the "Use simple file sharing mode" in Explorer's options.
2) Select that directory, and right-click on "Sharing and Security".
3) You should have now a "Security" tab in the dialog. Select it.
4) Click on "Advanced..." to see the second dialog box for advanced Security parameters.
5) Click on the "Owner" tag. Make sure that you are the owner of that directory. If you see a numeric ID, this is a lost Windows account, and you must select the new owner: your user account (search for it using the Advanced search), or the "Administrators" group (not the "Administrator" local account!)
6) Apply and close the security panel. Then reopen it to check that this selected user has the needed accesses. If it only inherits its access rights from the parent "Documents and Settings" folder, you may need to add the owner account in the Advanced security dialog, and give full control to it. The new ACL should list you or the Administrators group with full control on your home directory.
7) Before logging out of an Administrators account, make sure that you have set your login back to "Administators" role with the Control panel, or by adding your account to the "Administrators" group.
7) Now login with your user account, and check that you can open the "C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>" directory. Make sure you can create and delete a dummy file there. Display the folder in "Detailled" display mode, and right click on the column headers to add the "Owner" column. Check that there are no left unkown user ids there. Files in that folder should be owned by the "Administrators" group or yourself.
8) Select all files and subdirectories in this directory, then click on "Files->Sharing and Security". Go to the Advanced mode and select the owner tab. Apply yourself as the owner of all these files.
9) This done, you should remove yourself of the administrators group, and should relog in normal mode (not in "Safe" mode if you're on Windows XP Home).
One note: setting or removing security options incorrectly on Windows 2000/XP may render your installation completely unworkable (Windows needs that your Windows installation directory as well as the disk root folders be given a full access right to "BUILTIN\SYSTEM" and "BUILTIN\Administrators". Before making any change to your installation, make sure that the "Administrators" group keeps a full control on all files, and DON'T remove or add any access rights given to the "OWNER CREATOR" special builtin account, or to the "SYSTEM" builtin account.
If you're not confident with these options, notably on Windows XP Home where solving these problems is much more complex than on NT/2000 Server or XP Pro, try finding help from someone that is experimented with NT/2000/XP administration. |