MSR has a back country oven. It's wonderful. It works great. But only because you learned by trial and error. So in honour of my trial and error cooking experiments and an alturistic urge to prevent possible food disasters (especially if I'm eating it) here are my results and observations.

The Thermometer

Toss it.
It's not worth the weight or space. If you smell burning, things are burning.
Seriously. Toss it.
/opinion

The Heat Plate

Excellent, I just wish that mine looked as shiny clean as this one.
Put the plate under the wire (like picture) directly on the stove for low heat cooking.
Put the plate on top of the wire (flip the picture over) on top of the stove for medium heat.
Don't use the heat plate at all for high heat.

The Windscreen & Reflector

The windscreen is super good, your fuel use will drop dramatically, not to mention being able to cook in the wind. The reflector also helps a lot and prevents you from burning tabletops.