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Fixing LimeWire’s Crash-On-Start Bug

Software

I reinstalled LimeWire earlier today and remembered why I uninstalled it in the first place. LimeWire would install and load correctly, but upon loading it would crash before connecting. I Google’d for numerous solutions, but none managed to prevent its untimely demise.

It wasn’t until my recent failings did I realize the fatal error only occurred in version 1.6 of the JRE. The solution was simple, run LimeWire under version 1.5. The last revision of the 1.5 JRE is update 13, which must be installed before we can trick LimeWire into running. Our lives are made simpler by the fact that Java doesn’t uninstall previous versions of the JRE when an update is installed.

The easiest way to check is to browse over to C:\Program Files\Java and look for a folder named jre1.5.0_13. If this folder exists you’re in luck. If not, visit Sun’s archive page for JRE 1.5 Update 13 and click the link labelled “Download JRE”.

With Update 13 installed, create a new shortcut in your start menu or desktop and set its destination to the following address (even though its split over multiple lines, it should only be one line):
"C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_13\bin\java.exe"
-jar "C:\Program Files\LimeWire\LimeWire.jar"

This makes the presumption that your copy of LimeWire is installed under C:\Program Files\LimeWire. If you installed it elsewhere, you will have to change the address. Visa versa for Java.

Running LimeWire is now as simple as double-clicking the shortcut. However, it should be noted that instead of one LimeWire window, two will now appear. The first will be a command prompt. Its ugly, but do not close it as it will also close LimeWire.