I downloaded Lw and it was workig fine for a while until i closed out of it. It would not open after that so i uninstalled and tried to reinstall. I keep getting a message that says "an older version appears to be running, you must exit old version before continuing. I have already uninstalled it so how am I supposed to exit the old version????? I have Vista basic.

How did you uninstall LW? If you uninstalled through add/remove programs, that's the wrong way & can cause problems. Open task manager & see if there's a LW process running. If there is, end the process. Use your computer's search to look for all files & folders with limewire in the name. Delete what you find. Now try reinstalling the new version & see if it works.

The correct way to uninstall is by using the uninstall option, either via start > all programs > Limewire or C:\Program Files\Limewire.
Installing a new version will also automatically remove the old version first