I have the same problem, standard compatibliity mode fixes etc. aren't working.
Would love to replay this, I spent hours on it when I was younger, and I was very excited to get a working version for Windows 10!

If anyone has a solution, please let us know!

Same problem, black screen and cursor...

What I did.

1) installed the files from this for the widescreen mod
www(dot)moddb(dot)com/games/star-trek-bridge-commander/downloads/widescreen-for-bridge-commander

2) copied in the Star Trek Bridge Commander main folder this config file. (probably you have to modify it for your configuration)

www(dot)dropbox(dot)com/s/4rpvqtxjpjlermo/options.cfg?dl=0

I had the exact same problems, and here's where I'm at currently:
I have a 2560x1440 monitor. The guy who made the widescreen fix says that Bridge Commander can't run at a resolution higher than 2048x1440. The game wasn't making a complete options.cfg file (or sometimes one at all).
When I dialed down my monitor resolution to 1920x1080, the game would load and make a complete config file, I could max the in-game resolution settings at that point, then switch back to the higher monitor resolution and it works!
I did this with a vanilla load. I'll try out the various recommended mods now, but I get the impression that this game can crash on a dime if you make it unhappy, so we'll see how it goes!

Well, I tried the widescreen, but then my game ran in 1920x1080 with a black screen and a cursor so there's that. Then I uninstalled it and installed again, now I'm getting the exact same message box as mungojerry311:

D3D Render Creation Error
Error string from renderer was:
"Creation Failed: Desired fullscreen display mode not supported"

Wonderful. Optimized for Windows 10 like hell.

Okay. For some reason, the game works if you put the .exe in Windows 7 compatibility mode. It's still not perfect, but it works. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hello everybody, so I was also getting the fullscreen display mode not supported. I'm playing on a laptop, and out of frustration I tried using a HDMI cable to display off my tv and the game started! I then went to the graphics setting of the game and changed the resolution to a higher one then the default. I quit the game, disconnected the HDMI cable and tried to start the game again and it worked. Its a non wide screen but it was playing fine. I hope this helps

To all with the D3D Render Creation Error. I don't have this error, but I'm curious what the problem is and how to fix it.

Do you have the Legacy Components on in Windows 10? You can find it under Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off -> make sure Legacy Components + DirectPlay is selected.

This error probably seems to be related with some legacy components not installed correctly, indeed.

To know if some of this stuff is installed or modified, be aware if at the end of the installation a cmd screen is shown. let it close by itself. I will be enabling things like directplay and stuff like that, not enabled by default in Windows 10

Yeah, same. The game ran just fine, but then I tried the "widescreen" patch from moddb and now the game won't launch anymore. No matter if it's a fresh install or not. Getting the D3D Render Creation Error.

I changed the resolution and the game stopped working. I mean that a double click didn't do anything. Renaming or deleting the options.cfg solved the issue. A new options file is created and the game launched fine.

I didn't have the options.cfg file since it's only created after you run the game once and re-installing the thing wiped off all the previous files. That mixed with the game crashing on launch with the error made it a bit iffy to fix, but once I ran the game in Windows 7 compatibility mode (which for some reason worked fine) I managed to get a new .cfg file created and now the game runs normally again. Even without the compatibility mode.

Though, none of the widescreen fixes work for me. The game either just crashes or the resolution goes wonky.

This worked for me too. Connected laptop to TV with HDMI cable and it started no problem. I then chnged resolution to1280 x 1024 in the game and it now runs fine.

Thanks Lizardking13203[

Can confirm that setting Windows 7 Compatibility on stbc.exe fixed this issue for me on Windows 10.