LIMEWIRE 4.12.11 CRASHING (everytime) AT START-UP

[Stranger Mouse]

I've been using LW for years since the early days & always on WIN2K SP4 but now, since about 3 months the program starts, does all the normal things, logs on to the network correctly etc..etc but then as soon as I try and enter search terms or adjust a setting in 'Options' it just vanishes of the Desktop. It disappears into the system tray but as soon as I put my mouse over that systray item it disappears too.

Clearly the whole LW service has shut down mysteriously. It does this EVERYTIME - Without fail. Nothing simple fixes it.
I wonder if it might be a fault with my JAVA runtime that actually seems to be OK or if it might be some Windows security Update of which I have just a handful installed (uninstallable).
My Admin tools » EVENT VIEWER has absolutely NO error messages in it whatsoever. All appears to be normal.

Or could it be a WINDOWS service malfunctioning for instance: RPC - "Remote Procedure Call". It seems to be having a problem. It's not fully listed in the Admin tools » Services. I cannot start or stop it and a lot of other services are dependent on it so says the 'Services' window.
My fully functional anti-virus update for instance is dependent on RPC as is windows installer and Telnet. A Program alternative to LIMEWIRE I just tried called 'Shareaza' is shutting down at installation phase, which could be a pointer to this service being at fault.

Anyways, hope somebody has a clue because I certainly haven't.

[birdy]

Which Java are you using?? Try updating. Use the JRE offline installer & remove your current Java before installing the new one.
Java SE Downloads

You could also try installing a newer version of LW, the latest is 4.12.15. Or try the Beta version (4.13.12)
If you do try a newer version of LW, delete LW's preferences folder beforehand: See point 3 here & also point 2 if you've used older versions of LW in the past (there could be a folder in either location).
Fixes for LimeWire
This will kill all of your settings within options, you'll have to go back through afterwards & reset things. If you're not sure of your settings, go through LW's tools > options & write them all down, so that you can reset things later.