Had a few CTD near mega airports. Adjusted some traffic - Much better.
Running settings at High - I dared to try Ultra at most settings.
Worked fine for several flights. Then I got CTD starting in a small airport Belgium.
I reduced settings to High.
Next CTD was serious - total crash. Message was something about memory not read ??
Restart PC twice, my screensaver was lost, only black screen.
After moving 4 times- I was still able to find my old 11 year old upgrade to 64 bit dvd along with Win activation key. . Re activate and I am back for more beating…
There is a simconnect issue right now that is causing this.
It is supposed to be addressed in this coming update.
You actually found the temporary solution, which is the less you run through simconnect the more stable the sim is.
By dialing back the AI, you did just that.
Not using any external aps helps as well.
There are a lot of threads/posts in the forum on this issue if you want to search for more info.
I very much doubt MSFS hurt your computer as it doesn’t even use the registry.