Limewire opens multiple times for torrents

I seem to have a unique problem: every time I download a torrent file, a new LimeWire opens up. I've often found (using "programs running") that I have two or more instances of LimeWire running at once because of this. It slows my computer to a crawl, and so I have to shut down all but one of them -- which sometimes means losing the torrents I was trying to download.

If it helps, I'm using Windows XP with automatically updated Firefox and LimeWire 5.1.2.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

I don't how to stop the multiple instances of LW, however I do suggest that you consider using a different (and far better) torrent client, such as Vuze or uTorrent. LW is banned from some torrent sites, and the more experienced members here do not recommmend using it for torrents.

Thank you for the suggestion, I will check out those other programs.

Out of curiosity, why is LimeWire banned from some torrent sites?

I have heard of your problem before with torrents.

Some torrent programs do not report to the tracker correctly. Private sites tend to ban such torrent programs. Also, LW's implementation of torrents is not exactly full. It does not keep track of share ratio, etc. The better torrent programs are uTorrent & Vuse (Azureus).

LW doesn't conform to all of the usual protocols for torrents, such as tracking share ratios. (Some sites throttle download speeds according to the amount one uploads to others.)

More info here: Beginners Guide to torrents.

Thanks!