Or that it would be a good idea to pirate games?

Version 0.9.7 was released february 1st 2011. I'll let you figure out the rest.

Just delete the .ini file.

Try extracting it into a folder that isn't protected by windows (I.E. try on c:\desmume , not in program files). Also might want to try running it as admin. Delete the .ini file just in case.

This PSA brought to you by AA.

You meant save files are more dependable than savestates.

No way to get savestates to work on older versions.

No.

Are you using the in-game saves or saveSTATES?

Everything is entirely up to the game itself, or rather the way it was coded by its developers. Most games rely on RNG (Random Number Generation) to decide the outcome of these events, which is essentially a number constantly changing in the background in order to create the appearance of randomness. This gets saved by the emulator in a savestate as well, so when you load it up again it continues from the same exact point as before, every single time.

If the game developer decided to have that number constantly running in the background then it's timing-based. Wait another second after loading your savestate to hit 'attack' and the outcome will be different. It can, however, also be decided at the start of your round, and all actions' random outcome will be based on that. Or it can all be decided at the start of a fight according to a 'seed' number which decides *all* the actions throughout the fight.

Esentially, your ability to cheatsave in pokemon is entirely up to the game's developer.

Upgrade/Downgrade video drivers.

Should be a .dct file in your desmume folder. Delete it. Then load an in-game save.

Remove the cheat, load a saveGAME (not state)