InstallAware

I just want to be sure I understand the Patch feature properly (I'm not much of a Windows Installer guy.)

In the IDE in the Patches view, I add references to 2 prior versions of my product, say version 1 and version 2. My intent is to update all users to version 3. If I hit Build Patch, one EXE is produced. So can I assume that the new EXE contains all the info required to update both version 1 and version 2 users? And how is the patch applied to version 1 users? Is it done under the covers in 2 steps, i.e. 1 -> 2 -> 3, or is it one step to go from 1 -> 3?

Thanks.

It'll update both old versions in a single step. 1 goes to 3 directly.

Do the installs that go into the patch have to be full installs, or can they themselves be patches? We currently have an initial install, and a patch for it. A full install was never made for this patch. Should we do this in case we need to make a second patch?

Yes, you should - full setups are required.

Is it possible to create patches from installers created with e.g. Wise for Windows Installer (MSI or EXE files)?

No, this is not possible. What you can do though is use the (Un)Install MSI Setup command to (optionally silently) uninstall them as part of your setup pre-requisites before you start your main install routine.