I'm having start-up difficulty after successfully loading the game from disk. Patches are being applied. The game won't open. Where have I gone wrong? I'm honestly not great with computer set-up.

read my last post here:
http://www.gog.com/forum/the_witcher_3_wild_hunt/can_click_play_but_game_doesnt_start
maybe thats the problem.

I had this issue on Win10 when I first installed the game. I had to run vcredist_x64.

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt > _redist > MSVC2012_x64 > vcredist_x64

Run that and hit repair. If that was the issue you should now be able to launch.

You could also download the newest version directly from microsoft
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2977003