You can get Hardwar to run faster and start up without the CD by editing out the calls to the movie at the beginning of the game -- hardstar.gdv. If you are plagued with Interplay spam at the beginning of the game, you can remove that, too.

To do this editing, you'll need a "hex editor" and follow the instructions below. You can get a free hex editor here. It's free and called Frhed. I use it all the time. It's simple, lightweight, and effective. The link is at the middle of the page.

Before doing any hex editing, make a backup copy of the original file in a storage folder. That way if you screw up, you can copy the original file back to your Hardwar folder and start again.

Removing The Opening Movie Call

Open your hex editor and use File|Open to open the HardwarW.exe file. This file is found in your main Hardwar folder.

Use your hex editor's "search" function to find "hardstar.gdv". When found, change this to null. In Frhed, you'd use dots/periods to replace the characters in "hardstar.gdv".

Keep searching until all references to "hardstar.gdv" have been removed. There are two in version F2.1.

Now, save the edited file using File|Save. Start Hardwar and the movie won't play, it will go straight to some logos and loading the game.

Removing Interplay Spam

If no one else liked Interplay, they certainly made up for it with loving themselves. The patches have removed the references to Interplay and Gremlin spam. Below is how to remove the Interplay spam in version F2.1:

Open your hex editor. Use File|Open to open the Hardman.exe file in your main Hardwar folder.

Use your hex editor's search function to find "IP64". It will find a reference to a file called "IP640320.exe". This is the Interplay spam file. Delete this reference in Frhed by replacing the characters in the filename with dots/periods. Other editors use spaces.

There is only one reference this file in Hardman.exe.

Save the file using File|Save. Now run Hardwar and the Interplay spam will be gone. You need to go to your main Hardwar folder to fully complete the spam uninstall. Delete the following two files:

IP640320.exe

Reg32A.exe