Well, none of these tips helped me, so this is what I've done, finally, and now everything is working:
1) instead of hw.dll, I found a third version of the same file, which is not bothering me with -15MB fatal error message, or invalid CD-Key problem
2) but I still had issues and problems with the game, after only few seconds, it would freeze and the game would quit, returning me to Vista
3) solution? - either HW.DLL file, or compatibility mode set to winXP-SP2 (on the desktop shortcut). OR -
4) this finally worked for me: once I successfully started the game, I've changed video settings from OpenGL to D2D and it works. Everything works from there, without single problem
now i have to find the right resolution, but that's easy from here, once it's working...
cheers,
best of luck to yall ! :)
dootzky