How to maximise the stability of your 1.1 game

[QuintusSertorius]

As people probably know by now, stability is a real issue for me since 1.1 came around. I seem to have the worst luck with permanent CTDs no matter what I do. So I figured perhaps it was time to get a definitive guide together on how to reduce the likelihood of these annoying events. A list of things to do, and things not to do to maximise the stability of your game.

I'd appreciate team member confirmation/disputation on any and all items, as I said I want this to be definitive.


Do:
-run a full virus scan and ensure your machine is clear of viruses and spyware before attempting installation
-uninstall all previous versions of EB before installation.
-uninstall RTW/BI and reinstall from clean before attempting to install EB
-ensure before installing EB that you've got a clean RTW 1.5 installation (including the 1.3 and 1.5 patches if you've got an old version of RTW, but not the 1.1 or 1.2 patches).
-install all the permanent fixes
-switch off the autosave in the preferences.txt (but remember you'll need to manually save regularly)
-quit the game every two or so hours (more about performance than stability - preventing the game balooning in memory)
-wait 10-15 seconds before clicking to ending a battle which takes place on the AI turn
-keep regular saves every 6-12 turns, and on different save files (not just overwriting the same one over and again).


Do Not:
-be running Windows Vista; if you must run it, don't install the game in Program Files
-install the game in your Program Files directory; that's for applications, not games. If you're really struggling, make a directory c:\games and install it there.
-install any optional fixes that haven't been verified to become permanent ones
-run anything in the background while EB is running
-load multiple saved games in the same EB session
-save during the AI turn, nor reload anything that happens during it
-leave the script un-activated at any time (unless you're checking if a problem repeats with the script off)
-kill an AI faction's Leader and Heir in the same battle (unless it's the faction's last settlement)


Some others I'm not sure about:
-Could Force Diplomacy be messing with the script every time it's used? I notice whenever you take a settlement off someone, the egg timer appears for a moment, which it doesn't with some other uses of FD.
-Does cutting out the client ruler section of the script undeniably make the game more stable? Or does it create any problems of it's own?
-Do any of the cheats, like move_character or create_unit cause bugs to happen if they're used correctly (ie not spawning units a faction can't actually recruit, or moving characters in settlements or currently laying siege to somewhere)? What about process_cq?
-Is there a maximum treasury figure, after which a faction becomes unstable if they've passed that number? I often add lots of money to the Eleutheroi faction.
-Does Alt+Tab-ing out of the game a lot affect stability? I use this a lot to get screenshots, particularly during battles.
-Does following AI movement make crashes more likely?