Reduce the drag that's being caused by LW.

1. Tip: Purge the Downloads Queue!

2. * Go to LW's menu bar, Tools>Options>Speed & tick disable Ultrapeer Cap. & press apply button.
* Set both uplds & downlds to autoclear.
* Close all LW windows you don't need open at that time.
* Reduce uplds to about 70-80% or more. Reduce downlds to 80 or 90%.
* You might also consider reducing shared files if you have multiple thousands of them.

3. After opening LW wait 5 to 15 mins or longer before using. Let it settle down 1st.

4. Don't use the Resume button on all incomplete files. This can have side-fx such as affect LW's connection quality. May queue your files for much much longer. This will also stress LW & your comp. If you use Resume/Find sources then just apply it to a couple or so at one time.

5. Make sure your Java is up to date. Perhaps even consider removing all present versions, rebooting, then installing the beta 1.6 http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp using the "Offline" installer. Make sure it's the JRE version;
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6.0
The J2SE Runtime Environment (JRE) allows end-users to run Java applications.
(BTW LW won't use 1.6 if there's any other java versions on your system.)