Hi, I downloaded and operated LW successfully for about two weeks. All of a sudden, whenever I would exit LW, it would restart on its own. I then uninstalled LW only to get the following message that keeps on opening (with report pasted at the bottom of this post):

"One or more necessary files appear to be invalid. This is generally caused by a corrupted installation. Please try downloading and installing LimeWire again."

I then reinstalled LW only to find that it was restarting the program again whenever I closed it. I then uninstalled it again and the error message continues to pop up. Can anyone help???

LimeWire version 4.18.8
Java version 1.6.0-oem from Sun Microsystems Inc.
Windows Vista v. 6.0 on x86
Free/total memory: 32266168/33357824
com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.GUILoader$StartupFailed Exception: .\lib\hashes (The system cannot find the file specified)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.GUILoader.sanityCheck(G UILoader.java:281)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.GUILoader.load(GUILoade r.java:58)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Nativ e Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknow n Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Un known Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.Main.main(Main.java:45)
STARTUP ERROR!

Sounds like you accidentally were hit by a virus you downloaded, judging by the auto opening behaviour. See WARNING: Viruses on network you should be aware of! (click on blue link). Get rid of the virus, then reinstall LW. Be aware not all anti virus softwares are able to detect or remove all viruses.