Sorry to hear LW didn't work out for you. I don't suppose you tried some of the other tricks like control panel-add/remove - option to Repair. Or Right-clicking the Limewire icon and going to properties and changed compatability setting to Windows 2000. Or Java 1.5: Java 1.5 (take the JRE) Or deleting LW's Prefs folder called .limewire & found here:
C:/Documents And Settings/your_username/.limewire

But if it's no longer doing what it used to & you're happy with ARES then good luck! And happy dwnlding.