Anyone who has been around Citrix for any length of time will know that one of the main challenges is how to manage your template (or gold image) to keep applications up to date.

There are many ways you can achieve this including:

• Update a template containing all of your manually installed apps
• Use an automated build to freshly install the latest versions of each app
• Use AppAttach – this is limited to MSIX and AppV applications only
• Use AppV – this is end of life in 2026

These methods are all time-consuming or imperfect, but there is another way – Numecent CloudPager.

CloudPager is an application container management system for Windows desktop. It can deliver MSIX and AppV applications, but crucially it can also deliver Numecent’s own CloudPaging apps.

CloudPaging is a rarity among application virtualisation technologies in that its claim that it can virtualise any application is pretty much true. The traditional limitations of AppV and MSIX do not apply here due to the unique way that CloudPaging can differentiate between components and using “layers” can choose to virtualise them or physically install them – this means that device drivers for example are not a problem.

What does this mean for your Citrix persona management? It means that you can simply have a template that contains the Windows operating system only and then quickly and dynamically stream in your applications. The Cloud Player agent acts in the background and populates the users Desktop and Start Menu with the shortcuts to applications they need for their role based on “pods” or groups of applications. Compared with other streaming technologies, Cloud Player is very fast, and applications start instantly for the user.

Updating application versions is fast and dynamic too. No need for installation or downtime, just update your application or pod with the new version, remove the old version and almost instantly the user is up to date. It’s equally easy to roll back if you need to.

At Workspace IT, we have an Application Packaging team who are comfortable with all the leading technologies from the traditional Windows Installer MSI to AppV, MSIX, PSADT and of course CloudPaging.