Patching multiple vesions

[rtomsmith]

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.

[MichaelNesmith]

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

[rentzk]

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?

[MichaelNesmith]

Yes, you should - full setups are required.

[MortSkil]

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

[MichaelNesmith]

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.