When Limewire starts up, the ongoing and incomplete download window takes up all the space, there is no searches window. Then when I enter in a key word and begin to search, nothing comes up, not even a window. All that happens is that the list of albums/songs comes up on the left hand side, but the downloads window still remains the only thing being displayed on the rest of the program. How can I begin to search again?

One solution is to try deleting your LW Preferences folder whilst LW is closed; instructions here: Fixes for Limewire

The other is to resize the windows. You might have accidentally pressed the small up/down arrows which will show only one window. Try clicking them to get it back to normal. See Click on arrows on LW window (click on link)