I just got this game (looks good, though I only played one level till an error kicked me to desktop).
Anyway, I went by original wars support page and downloaded the patch 1.10b Full thinking that hopefully it would fix whatever is triggering the crashes, but instead, it rewards me with a screen were it asks me to introduce a license key or buy one for 9.90$ (mind you, I already paid and less than that!). So I had to uninstall and reinstall* to get my game back.
Patch with care.
*(by the way, when I click the installer it checks integrity, then nothing happens -no screen, no info, just hard disk noise - for some good 5 minutes till vista asks me for permision to install, is this normal?)

Hi,
Games on gog are patched to the latest official version, so unless you're looking for a fan made patch or mod you shouldn't have to worry about patches.
As for the the time the installer takes to launch, that's probably because you have UAC enabled, but to answer your question, yes, on Vista with UAC enabled sometimes it can take a while before Vista asks for permission to run the installer.

Ahhh, it seems to have started happening after the GOG patched their version. Can you confirm it still happens if (beta) 1.11 applied as well? To get that one, you'll have to register in forums and joing the open betatest here:
http://forum.owsupport.com/groupcp.php?g=330
You are usually approved in a day. AFAIR, you'll need two patches - the latest "full" one and the hotfix (latest being the Aug 1 the time I got one).
If the problem persists, let me know and I'll write to the developer; wish I could verify myself, but I can't install OW ATM :(.
PS: There were some crash fixes in 1.11, so it might also be the one you need.

Altar Games also sell Original War(Download version), due to this the patch supports both there version and the normal game versions. When certain files which should only be contained in Altar's version are present the patcher will overwrite the games main file with a version using Altar's protection. If the protection system they use isn't detected then it will use the unprotected main file instead.
If GOG got there latest version from Altar but never removed the protection DLL from there distrobution then this would trick the patcher into thinking the user has downloaded the game from Altar's shop.
If you wish to try 1.11 then you require v1.10b . Since GOG say there fully patched you shouldn't need to download the 1.10b full.
@Vista: You will most likely need to run it in Administration rights. The 1.10 patches installer wasn't made for Vista, so it won't bring up any warning that the app needs Administration rights.