One problem I find with LPE & all the LW 5 versions is the Library concept. LW 5 loads the library in almost a similar fashion it loads Shared files. Thus there is a massive extra load on the program. Depending on how much extra load, after a period of operation a common error message to receive is, 'LimeWire encountered a problem ..." pop-up message. LW then must be closed & re-opened to refresh. Also if you do have a large library, frequently LW will start to lag & become slow after a period of time. On a mac with a large library, after 10+ minutes I find opening the preferences window & attempting to switch preference tabs will result in the program freezing.

Something else that adds to the load on LW is having a large ban list. This has a similar effect as having a large Library list of files. Yet the ban list is stored in limewire.props file, the shares & library in library5.dat file.

I am constantly backing up my limewire.props file, because every once in a while, LW will wipe it clean after a crash. With large library, large shares or/& large ban list, LW also becomes slow to write to the limewire.props or library5.dat file. Thus some things may not get written to the limewire.props file for up to or over 15 minutes. Also after opening LW, it may take LW a while to read the entirety of limewire.props file. I discovered this with the ban list.

* I think ideally, some of the options in the limewire.props file such as banned list should be separated into their own file. Thus less lines for the program to search through, read & write to. The library5.dat file should be split into two (or more) files, one for shares, one for library. I don't think programs read large text settings files very efficiently once they reach a certain size. For java based programs, it means Java memory errors! Alternative answers? VM or seeking extra system RAM when needed for Java? Java really shows it's limitations when lots is loaded into it. And my console shows the errors are Java memory based when the program starts to lag & eventually crash.

I have 16 GB RAM & 4 x 1 TB Hard Disk drives. Lots of alternative memory locations that could be used. LW only uses a very small portion of my RAM, about 300 MB of RAM. Having option to enable extra RAM or VM could be highly beneficial. I guess in similar way Photoshop allows you to set portion of system RAM it utilizes.
(BTW I greatly dislike LW 5's library concept being treated similarly to shares. For a large library, it means problems.)