Example A (Minor Bug Fix)

Say you noticed that software you released had a bug. Only minor changes were necessary to remove the problem, but once you did them, you needed to re-send your customers the complete version. This might be expensive for you, if you have to do it by postal mail. And it would possibly be a problem to the customer it you sent it by email. Anyway, sending the patch file instead of the full version would do one of these:

Figure A: Minor bug fix to a Windows Software

Full Installation Version | 1570 kB |  *********************************************************
Executable Patch File     |  35  kB |  *
Plain Patch File          |  1,7 kb |  -