Hi,
This might be a random or badly phrased question, but when I run the new version of Limewire it takes up so much memory usage and commit charge MB that it slows down and pretty much stops any other programs I'm running altogether. As I'd like to just be able to run LW in the background while I run other stuff, just real basic like Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word etc. this is a big problem....
Does anyone know how I can stop LW pretty much taking over !?

Try the tips here: Reduce the drag caused by LW
To disable ultrapeer capabilities in new versions, tools > options > advanced > performance. While you're there, also disable Mojito DHT capabilities.

The Java version that you'll link to from that post is now Java 6 update 3. Some people have had problems with the latest Java versions, so it's up to you if you want to try that one or not. I'm using it & it's fine for me.

This older version of Java has worked better for a lot of people. Download
the JRE offline installer & remove your current Java before you install this one.
Archive: Download Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 Update 11