I have limewire 4.16.6 but hadn't used it for years, but when I opened it a while back there was a warning saying I should update to the latest version (I forget the reason, something to do with its vulnerability to viruses). I didn't bother as I only wanted one track so I closed it unused and unupdated. A few years later I want another track so I opened limewire again. The warning has gone, replaced by update to 5.2.

I noticed a recommendation to downgrade to version 4.16 if having trouble with latest version.
But I would have thought that warning still applied?

A few other questions, if I do have to update what do I do? Just download, not having to bother with the old version, uninstalling it or anything? Does installing and uninstalling affect your old downloaded files from the previous version?

Do users of earlier versions like 4.16 only have access to files of users with the same Limewire version?

I'm wary of updating given the problems updating can sometimes cause and the fact I download so little, but I'm mindful of that warning. I'd welcome your advice as to whether to update or if it's safe to use the version I have?

I'm currently using version 4.16.7 in preference to the newer versions as I have heard there are quite a few teething problems with the intitial releases of Limewire 5.
4.16.7 works fine and will complement and work with any new version that has been released in the interem. Go ahead and use 4.16.7 and have no worries.
I find it to be a good stable release that is easy to use and works fine with my new Vista laptop.

Version of LW will not protect you from viruses. I do not recall any such warning about viruses. A warning you will receive about possible viruses is if you attempt to launch a program within your LW library.

However, LW 5.2 has introduced a concept of known file hashes of the most common virus files on the network, which will be deleted at moment of downloading completion.

As stated here http://www.gnutellaforums.com/downlo...downloads.html LW 4.16 users have access to a much wider audience than either LW 5 or 4.18. LW are in the habit of stopping the earlier versions connecting to the later versions for downloading. This is an attempt to force everyone to update their LW earlier versions.

I use LW 4.16 & have access to LW 5 users & users with versions as early as 4.8 at least (which was released 4 years ago) for both downloading from & uploading to. If using LW 5 you would not have access to the same earlier versions for sharing with. LW 5 is limited to sharing with LW 4.14 (released 2 years ago) as the earliest version.

The update messages & also possibly the upgrade messages annoy many people. Unfortunately no way of turning such messages off because they are hard coded into the program .... LW calls back home & does version checks.