To update a product without distributing a complete, updated installation package, you can create a Windows Installer patch package (.msp) or an Update.exe which launches your patch package.

The Patch Design View provides an integrated, visual method for creating patches and making logical considerations when selecting the proper settings associated with each patch configuration you create.

You can create multiple patch configurations in the Patch Design view. Each patch configuration contains the settings and data required to build a patch.

To create a new patch configuration:

1. Right-click the Patch Design root node.
2. Select "Add New Patch Configuration" from the context menu.

Each patch configuration must contain at least a latest setup and one previous setup. With these minimal settings, you can create a patch.

To add a latest setup, right-click a patch configuration, and select "Add New Latest Setup." This will automatically create a new latest setup as well as a previous setup.

You can build the patch by right-clicking the patch configuration and selecting build.

You can drag and drop latest setups with their respective settings across patch configurations in the Patch Design tree.

You can perform validation against the latest setup by right-clicking the latest setup image and choosing "Validate Latest Setup" from the context menu.

Macrovision recommends using the QuickPatch Wizard to create a QuickPatch project for setup authors who want to ship small, single updates to their users. QuickPatch authoring provides an alternative to creating a patch in the Patch View even though it provides less customization. Fundamentally, both patch creation methods produce the same deliverable types: *.msp and *.exe files.