Do I need a CD to patch a warcraft lower than 1.21b?

I think I remember that you'll need the CD to patch warcraft if you have a Warcraft lower than 1.21b...

Is this true?

My classmate needs the 1.21b patch WITHOUT a cd, and obviously his warcraft cannot run without a cd...

Do I need a cd to run the patch?

ftp://ftp.4players.de/pub/pc/war3/wa...1b_english.exe
here's the url for the 1.21b english

And yes, it's true