Desktop image management for virtual desktops

A computing device, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to:
• receive a request to apply an application layer to two or more virtual machines executing on a host computing device, the application layer including a set of files and registry entries that comprise an application;
• store content of the application layer in a single instance store that resides on physical storage associated with the host computing device;
• generate one or more stubs corresponding to the content of the application layer on virtual disks of each of said two or more virtual machines;
• and
• mark metadata of each stub on each virtual disk to indicate that the content of the stub resides in the single instance store.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising one or more sequences of instructions, the instructions when executed by one or more processors causing the one or more processors to execute the operations of:

• receiving a request to apply an application layer to two or more virtual machines executing on a host computing device, the application layer including a set of files and registry entries that comprise an application;
• storing content of the application layer in a single instance store that resides on physical storage associated with the host computing device;
• generating one or more stubs corresponding to the content of the application layer on virtual disks of each of said two or more virtual machines;
• and
• marking metadata of each stub on each virtual disk to indicate that the content of the stub resides in the single instance store.