Techniques are described for performing browser-driven application capture of application installations. When the browser on the client machine detects a request to begin an application capture session, it downloads an orchestrator binary from an origin server. The orchestrator is a self-extracting executable that decompresses components responsible for preparing the client machine for the application capture session. Preparing the client machine includes starting a local web server, executing a registry script to create the necessary registry state, mounting a virtual disk, and deploying an agent that will record state changes on the client machine. Once the client machine has been prepared, the application installation can begin. During the installation process, the agent intercepts state changes occurring on the client machine and redirects them to the virtual disk. Once finished, the application capture session is completed by adding identity and metadata information to the virtual disk to generate the application package.