Improved techniques of managing graphical user interface (GUI) objects based on portal layers (or simply portals) are described. A portal refers to a logical reference to a GUI object specified by an application that enables an operating system to access and process the specified GUI object without affecting any of the rules/assumptions required by the application for the specified GUI object. Portals can assist with reducing computational resources required for rendering by assisting with reducing or eliminating the use of snapshots for rendering. One embodiment includes generating a layer tree; identifying a first sub-tree of the layer tree as portal content; establishing a portal as a reference to the portal content in a second sub-tree of the layer tree; generating a render tree based on the layer tree; rendering the render tree to create an image; and presenting the image on a display.