John -- I am probably one of the luckier users, and seldom experience crashes. Moreover, I do all the sorts of things you described, together, and on a regular basis, in projects much longer than 10 minutes -- though seldom over 30 minutes each.
And that is over a series of 4 successive computers using versions of VS from 7 through to the current VS11.5. The computers, moreover, were totally different from each other in their resources. Their operating systems ran from Windows ME, through XP Home, then XP Pro, to now Vista Ultimate. See my current System button below for the specifications of the current computer I am using. None of the computers, moreover, had any special tweaks done to them to work better with VS or for that matter, video editing. It just worked from first installation (apart from a minor blip I had initially with VS10 in not being able to see the Album and a couple of other transitions...)
The few crashes I have suffered over the years, for the most part I have found were either caused by my own ignorance or else, surprisingly enough, out of impatience on my part. I would try to select a large clip, say, and it would not immediately highlight, so I would triple click it or try to move on to another clip. VS would become "confused" let us say, and hang. So I have learned to give it time. If I try something and there is no immediate reaction, I will wait a while, then go to the kitchen and make a cup of coffee and more often than not, when I come back, I find that VS has in fact carried out the original command.
I just had this happen recently, for example, with a series of video clips from a HD TV recording I had made. Each and every clip was recorded using exactly the same properties and were more or less the same length. In fact they were all recorded over a period of 2 hours on the same night using the same HDTV card. Yet when I clicked to import the first clip into the VS11.5 library pane, there was no reaction. Nor was there any error message or Not Responding sign... I thought the video was corrupt, and it might very well have been in some way. I tried all sorts of things and all sorts of programs including Womble and Video ReDo. Then I went back to the orginal clip, selected it again and went away for ten minutes. And when I came back, inexplicably, there it was on the Library pane. The really strange thing was that the subsequent clips in the same series were loaded in a couple of seconds. And I cannot find any difference at all between the first clip and the subsequent ones. So I put it down to "Go figure".
The problem is, of course, that each and every computer on the face of the earth is different. This is not only because of its hardware, brand or operating system. But as soon as we start loading programs, files, codecs etc, it takes on a different 'persona' from an otherwise identical model next door. And I suppose no one can predict how a particular combination of software and hardware might react with a program like Video Studio.
We try to find solutions to the problems users have, and often do. But sometimes, the problem remains. Or the user reports, happily, "I resolved it, but I don't know how!!"
And I suppose here endeth the lesson...
