I have three systems running here in my home -
Win 98 SE with Mcafee & Limewire 2.0.2
Win2K with Mcafee & Limewire 2.2.4 PRO
Win2k with Norton & Limewire 2.3 beta

I have experienced none of the problems mentioned in this thread. The only thing I might be doing different is I decline to install the junkware (Gator etc.) during the LIMEWIRE installation. I suspect this other software is the root of the problem. As I understand it Limewire itself is well behaved but the ad-on stuff that is bundled with the Limewire installer is really a bunch of spyware that DOES change your registry and DOES install some new DLLs etc. While I don't know for a fact I suspect this other software probably is a source of revenue for Limewire. As you will note I popped for the $8.50 for my primary system for the ad-free version of Limewire.

I concur with others that Adaware by Lavasoft (free version) will remove most of this crapware... I use it on the three systems of mine... and almost daily find Cydor and Double-Click stuff stuck onto my system by unscrupulous vendors.