Today I have set aside a block of time for installing and configuring the game. I had a very discouraging start; got the game installed under W10 but could not get it to run no matter what I did. Installed it on a folder in C:\Games\SHIII and running as admin under W7 compatibility mode. No-disc installed but would not run.
Then I figured it out: I was only copying over the SH3.exe alone, not the other .dll files in the no-disc folder.
Once I corrected that, she loads and runs fine. takes less than ten seconds to load a naval academy exercise. SSD sure makes the loading faster.
Next steps: Make an archive copy of the game "as is" in "vanilla" state, patched to 1.4b, then get to installing a supermod, tweaking and then run through the academy so as to get my sea legs under me again.