Should we use MSP patches or complete EXE (minor) update packs

[Zsolt Kollarits]

Dear Advanced Installer Support Team,

We are planning to release our product more frequently in the future, for this we would like to ask your opinion about what is the best AI technology/feature to use for the following situation:
1. new update packs will be prepared by us which will contain only a few (5-10) new files
2. obviously the new update pack should just install the new files on the customers´ end PC, without touching the old ones
3. the size of new update packs should be as small as possible

In the past we already used your patching (MSP files) technology and we think that technology kind of fits to the situation above. Do you think that too? Or maybe you have another solution ideas to consider? What about minor EXE updates? We are wondering if we change more files (not only 5-10), then patching (MSP) technology is losing its advantages as we won´t get smaller MSP files anymore. In those cases probably we should create full EXE minor update packs?

Could you please share with us all the options available in AI?

Best regards,
Zsolt

[Eusebiu]

Hi Zsolt,

For the scenario you describe, the patch is still the best solution. Minor upgrades can also be a solution, but it has the disadvantage of the large package size. Actually, a minor upgrade package contains all the files of a product, but it installs only those that were modified in the latest version, thus its size is identical with the size of a major upgrade package.

Indeed, in case you change more files the size of the patch will get bigger, but there is no solution against this. However, in that case you can consider creating a major upgrade instead. It is recommended to create a major upgrade from time to time because installing only patches over patches can hit problems at some point which are not so easy to solve.

If you have other questions, just let me know.

Best regards,
Eusebiu

[R.Mueller]

Hi,

if we take out the requirement with the small package size, is there any other advantage of MSP packages over full packages installed minor update? Because I think, package size is no issue anymore, as long as we don't deliver dozens of gigabyte in each package.

Other question, is it somehow possible to wrap up multiple MSP files into a single (*.exe?) bootstrapper? Otherwise we need to create a MSP package for both 32-bit and 64-bit installations and we need to deliver this to the customer. It would be nice and handy, if the local administrator just double clicks on a little exe and it installs automatically the correct version of the package. Is this somehow achievable?

Basically this question would be one of the reasons to deliver the full package and install it as minor update only.

Kind Regards,

Roland

[Eusebiu]

Hi Roland,

if we take out the requirement with the small package size, is there any other advantage of MSP packages over full packages installed minor update? Because I think, package size is no issue anymore, as long as we don't deliver dozens of gigabyte in each package.

There is no other noticeable advantage that comes to my mind for the MSP packages over minor upgrades.

Other question, is it somehow possible to wrap up multiple MSP files into a single (*.exe?) bootstrapper? Otherwise we need to create a MSP package for both 32-bit and 64-bit installations and we need to deliver this to the customer. It would be nice and handy, if the local administrator just double clicks on a little exe and it installs automatically the correct version of the package. Is this somehow achievable?

For this, you can create another EXE package that contains the MSP packages as feature-based prerequisites and installs them depending on the version already existent on the machine.

If you create a mixed 32/64-bit package and deliver it as a minor update, the appropriate version should be installed automatically.

Best regards,
Eusebiu