Freeware Review: Limewire

First, there was Napster. Then, Kazaa. Now-a-days, it seems like Limewire is the big man on campus. For the few of you who haven't heard of it, Limwire is a file sharing program used to download movies, images, ebooks and most importantly: music. Their website makes the program sounds like a dream come true. No adware or spyware, fast connections, easy to use and free! Don't get to excited, though, because it's nothing like it sounds.

Let's start with the biggest problem. Many people (not all, and I'm unsure as to what exactly causes this) have gotten a worm packaged with limewire. This worm gets into your computer and places a hidden folder filled with pornography-centric files that multiply before your eyes. Deleting it doesn't help, as it just comes right back. It also disallows access to your task manager, and makes limewire start up as soon as your computer starts up, regardless of settings, and restarts the program whenever you shut it down.

Many have said that this worm is not from limewire itself, but from programs downloaded through limewire. However, after I had first noticed that I, to, had the worm and fixed the problem, I tried downloading limewire on a test computer (which was completely clean at the time). After downloading, installing and running limewire but NOT downloading any files through it, I found the same worm on that computer.

Aside from that, every other feature is pretty much just an annoyance. Limewire runs on the Gnutella network, which is horrid. Pretty much every search turns up a few .zip or .exe files with your search terms in it that are just masked malware. On top of that, searches are inconsistant. Two computers with the same settings, sitting right next to each other will at times turn up completely different results. Add that together with adds, and it asking you to upgrade to "Pro version" everytime you load up - and it's just not worth the trouble.