How to play Starcraft with No CD

You need Patch 1.15.2 or higher installed

You can get the patch from Blizzard here: Starcarft 1.16.1 download

StarCraft and StarCraft: BroodWar no longer require the CD while playing the game.  To play without the CD, please follow the following instructions:

Windows Users:

Make sure you have “Hide extensions for known types” unchecked. To do this please use the following steps:

1. Click Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Explorer
2. Click on Tools -> Folder options (Windows Vista users may have to press the Alt key to see the tools option at the top of the window)
3. Click on the View Tab In the list, look for the “Hide extensions for known file types” option, and make sure that it is unchecked.
4. Click OK to save the changes.
5. Now you will need to copy some files from the Game CDs

If you own only StarCraft, copy “INSTALL.EXE” from the StarCraft CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to “StarCraft.mpq“.

If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy “INSTALL.EXE” from the StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to “BroodWar.mpq“. 

If you wish to play the StarCraft original missions then please copy and rename the install file from the original StarCraft CD as well, as listed directly above.

Mac users:

1. If you own only StarCraft, copy “StarCraft Archive” from the StarCraft CD to your StarCraft/StarCraft Files/ folder.
2. If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy “Brood War Archive” from the StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft/StarCraft Files/ folder.  If you wish to play the StarCraft original missions then please copy the Starcraft Archive file from the original StarCraft CD as well, as listed directly above.

Official Blizzard release notes on this…

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=21150