Hello, this is my first attempt at using Limewire so forgive me for what is probably a really stupid question. In the quality column, there are stars indicating the quality of the download, and I have read on the forum people talking about this. However, on the top of the search column I read "Only search results with a (padlock sign) are official limewire communications" and when I click to find out more, it says there should be a padlock sign in the quality column, and that if there are only stars in the quality column then this is an example of a virus. Putting aside the fact that whenever I performed a search, there are no padlock signs to be seen, I have read amongst the forum chats people talking about the stars so am i going mad or what? thanks for any help. I only wanted to download some music for my son's birthday party, but I knew it wouldn't be straightforward

That banner was added because there's a bogus LW update showing up in search results. It's a 75.7 KB .exe & shows up as "Urgent LW update - download & install now". If people download & install that thing they could end up infected. So, to make sure everyone knew that it was crap, the warning banner was added.
It's just to make sure everyone knows what's a real LW update & what's not.

The padlock symbol doesn't apply to music or video etc

Thanks, not quite sure I understand but as long as I know that it's okay to not worry about seeing a padlock sign then that's cool!

A spammer starting spamming LimeWire with a file called "LimeWire Urgent Update - Download and install now!". And it was fake. It was really a trojan. Limewire wanted to inform everyone that it was fake. And that real files from limewire have a padlock.

Thanks garbagefan2, but what I don't understand is that when I am doing a search (for music), these padlocks don't ever appear.