The Target Image Properties

General

Package

The MSI package containing the target version of the product. This package will be extracted with an administrative install into and administrative image in order to create the patch.

Ignore missing source files

If this option is set the patch is built even if files are missing from the image (administrative install) used by the patch.

Checking "Ignore missing source files" and removing files that you know haven't change will reduce the time necessary to generate the patch.

Validation

A set of rules will be used in order to validate a patch before applying it on an installation. In this context, the "Installed" version is the package being patched and the "Base" version if the package used to create the patch.

Default language must match base database

If this option is set the default language of the target image must be the language used during the installation of the original package.

Product must match base database

If this option is set then the package used by the target image can be different from the package used to install the application.

This option should be unchecked when creating a patch for a multilingual package. This is because you need to create a patch for each language and the MSI generated for that language is different from the multilingual package which was installed.

UpgradeCode must match base database

If this option is set the Upgrade code of the target image must be the same as the Upgrade Code of the installed package.

Product Version Checks

This combo allows you to specify which version fields will be used in the check performed for the target image.

Only the first three fields of the version are taken in consideration by Windows Installer (the fourth field is ignored).

Product Version Relationship

This combo allows you to define the relationship between the version of the installed package (Installed version) and the version of the target image (base version). Under normal circumstances, these versions should be equal.

Symbol Folders

Windows Installer can use PDB symbol files generated for PE code files (EXE, DLL, etc.) to generate more optimal diffs, thus reducing the size of the patch. Use the [ Add... ] button to add a folder, the [ Replace... ] button to replace one or the [ Remove ] button to remove it.