Need advice on installing an application silently with patches

Question

What I want to do is install program X with patches silently. Program X has an installer that is an MSI package. Program X has quite a few MSP file patches (8+)that have been released that I also want to install silently. There are two ways that I've seen to approach this:

Method 1: Slip Streaming into "Network" installation

msiexec.exe /a "C:\ProgramX\ProgramX.msi" 

When the GUI pops up, I choose a location to extract to, then after extraction apply each patch with:

msiexec.exe /a "C:\admin_install_location\ProgramX.msi" /p "C:\patches\update1.msp"

This method takes a long time to slip stream each patch and if possible I'd like to automate it somehow, perhaps using a /qb.

Method 2: Apply during installation

msiexec.exe /I "C:\ProgramX\ProgramX.msi" ADDLOCAL=ALL SOFTWARE_CLASS=Editor SEAT_PREFERENCE=Fixed /qb PATCH="C:\patches\update1.msp;C:\patches\update2.msp;C:\patches\update3.msp"

What I would like to get advice on is:

1. Which one is better suited for patches? Should I just slip stream for big service packs which are released less frequently and use method 2 for patches?

2. Will the slip streamed "network" install version install faster than method 2 (assume the patch list is > 8 msp files)?

3. Can I create the network location silently somehow with something like this?

   msiexec.exe /a "C:\ProgramX\ProgramX.msi" /qb INSTALLDIR="C:\admin_install_location"

4. Is there any way to apply the patches as I create the network install location such as this?

   msiexec.exe /a "C:\ProgramX\ProgramX.msi" PATCH="C:\patches\update1.msp;C:\patches\update2.msp;C:\patches\update3.msp"

Answer 1

I would avoid Method #1 due to:

Rule 44: Avoid Patching Aministrative Installs