Ah-ha! This is why my ears were itching!... either that, or my ear hair needs trimming again... TMI!
Steam itself can be installed in any folder, including Program File type folders. It's the game itself that cannot, and has to be in a separate "Library" folder that is NOT in a protected folder. SH3 & SH4 use the same basic engine, written during Windows XP days. JSGME was also written during the Windows XP days. UAC (User Access Control) was introduced with Vista, and has been with us ever since, in one form or another. Its purpose was to help "protect" the OS and important files, UAC (and others of its ilk) from user "intervention", shall we say? Therefore, if you make edits to certain files in a protected folder, Windows will "see" the edits, and roll them back. This is why you don't install the old game in a protected folder.
In your case, D:\AnyFolder\Steam works because you are not in a protected folder. However, that does NOT preclude following mod install instructions, such as "remove spaces from the path" such as making "Silent Hunter 3" into "SilentHunter3", or just "SH3", because the install routine cannot handle "spaces" in its command line, so you always follow install instructions, but you don't have to worry as much about the Steam install. Just pay attention to any warnings about it...
As for having to "update" the SH3.exe file itself, Steam has the "latest" SH3.exe file already. So you are at v1.4b (1.4.0.1), and you don't have to mess with those StarFarce strippers, or executable updaters. Getting SH3Commander and the add-ons going can be a bother though. I just went to try SH3 Commander again (hadn't updated things lately), using the GWX config, and forgot to change the SH3 install folder, and ended up in LSH instead... so those take the "default" folder from the Windows registry. Be careful there. I can start LSH fine through SH3C, but not the desktop short-cut...
- further investigation is required... Steam doesn't stand still, and follows Windows, but SH3 can't...
