Decided to play the game only after a selective startup boot to root out any other possible causes of my random every other thursday CTD. Stumbled across this which lists quite a few programs that I use and have used with no issue while using Steam and Steam games however that said this list is quite large(for instance Spybot....really? most likely the Tea Timer) Other than disabling Steam Overlay, Communication and setting it to run in offline mode try cutting out any of these programs and make sure if they have auto updaters and you will be running them while playing to at least disable that option(willing to be most things on this are there due to auto update) Here take a look:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

Catalyst AI.....sigh I don't even think there is an OFF switch for it in my CCC....unless Performance means off.

Yeah...my guess is that Steam is the biggest problem with Skyrim. By all definition it's just as bad as any other addware or spyware.

Totally agree and I use Steam for plenty of games the only ones that don't work are Oblvion GOTY and Skyrim had issues with Overlay and Comms on etc. I still get that every other thursday CTD and have two characters that have hit he Save File CTD wall. So not all CTD's are created equal but things like OSD and background programs can cause them too. I figure at this point any CTD's I am still getting are related to Bloat, dirty cells or some other game or maybe driver issue.

I disabled / uninstalled the 1 item I had running in that list to no effect. Game still unplayable.

Def not a one stop shop for fixes but alot of the things on this list shocked me.....figured I should share it.

I have some things on that list..(Avast, MSI AFterburner, Spybot....) all play very nicely with Skyrim. Avast for one...never gave me an Issue with anything...ever. That along with Spy-bot are the first things installed for my OS. Then test utilities...lol, One of which is MSI afterburner (also on that list). These things I would never give up. If i couldn't play the Game (with steam) and these things, then I would play the Game with these things, but without Steam. We all have priorities , steam is last on the list...sorry to say.

Longest straight run of Skyrim....19 hours.

Really?! What do they expect us to do about that?

Also, some programs are on there just to prevent pirating and blocking ads. I'm not getting rid of my Anti-Virus ether...
Basically, they want you to switch to XP or Vista, get rid of your anti-virus, uninstall anything that may cause them to lose money(ex. uTorrent), and get rid of any 3rd party programs(tune-up programs, ATI Tools, etc...). They expect too much.

Erm. How about not run it!

I have five of the listed apps running constantly, but haven't noticed any issues with Skyrim, Steam or anything else!

It's part of Windows... It probably has a .dll file that runs anyways.

In other words, you have no clue what you're talking about. It would be the overlay that borks Steam, not the dll.

Just for the record I've been using Creative Software, EVGA Precision, iolo System Mechanic and AVG A-V for a long time and have never had a problem with Skyrim, FONV or Steam (that isn't mod related). Maybe it's an installation issue or something.

Sorry but I'm a little suspicious of that Steam list. I have a hard time believing that all those AV's cause issues. The other programs in that list like Catalyst AI or Creative software shouldn't be causing any either. Seems to me that that's one of those "hey we can't fix or find the issue, blame one of these" posts.

I would highly suggest you keep any and all software updated, to include Windows, and install any missing service packs. I would also suggest you check your firewall settings to make sure Steam,and its games, are allowed access to the net.

I've been using Steam since its release with Half-Life 2 and have had no issues. I've also been (and still do) using Catalyst drivers (Cat AI) and Creative software forever and a day and still have no issues.

And be very aware that most Bethesda games have CTD issues. All you have to do is Google one of their games - Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion, Skyrim.

My suggestion is to clean out your save folder to about the last 10-15 saves and go from there. That seems to help a lot with Bethesda's games.

Good luck.

Its a troubleshooting list.....like I would never uninstall MSI afterburner however the OSD that comes with it can cause issues with games. Set it to stealth mode or disable it for said game. The point the list I think makes quite obvious is to clean boot before playing Skyrim at least if you are trying to isolate the reasons for CTD.

Yeah that makes better sense.

If it's any help here's what I've got running in memory when playing Skyrim:

http://i42.tinypic.com/35btrtu.jpg

I always play from a clean boot aswell, and I only have Realtek, MSE & Afterburner starting up at bootup.

EDIT: I'm using no mods either.

Thanks for sharing