I am not interested in any auto update solution, such as ClickOnce or the MS Updater Block. For anyone feeling the urge to ask why not: I am already using these and there is nothing wrong with them, I would just like to learn about any efficient alternatives.

I would like to publish patches = small differences that will modify existing files of the deployment with the smallest possible delta. Not only code needs to be patched, but also resource files. Patching the running code can be accomplished by maintaining two separate synchronized copies of the deployment (no on the fly changes to the running executable are required).

The application itself can be xcopy deployed (to avoid MSI auto-correcting the modified files or breaking ClickOnce signatures).

• I would like to learn how to handle different versions of patches (e.g. there is a patch issued that fixes one error and later another patch that fixes another error (in the same file) - users may have any combination of these and there comes a third patch - in text files, this may be easy to implement, but how about executable files? (native Win32 code vs. .NET, any difference?)

• If the first problem is too hard to solve or unsolvable for executables, I would like to at least learn if there is a solution that implements simple patching with serial revisions - in order to install revision 5, user must have all previous revisions installed to ensure validity of the deployment.

Are there any existing solutions to accomplish this?

NOTE: There are a few questions on SO that may seem like duplicates, but none with a good answer.

This question is about the Windows platform, preferably .NET.