stuart9001: Try it without the 1.14 patch, just 1.06 and 1.08. It's a while since I last put it on and I seem to remember it working better this way.
I never had any problem with the installer.
The installer works fine, I meant the setup.exe in the IG2-directory that handles the game-settings like resolution, graphics driver etc. I got it to work despite it being unstable (black flickering and sometimes scr*wing my desktop settings). :)
I re-installed the game and applied only the 1.06 and 1.08 patches. The game worked, but with the same error (crash to desktop) when pressing "Design"- button in-game, and game still running too fast. I am confident IG2 does not handle 64 bit systems too well.