The disclosure is directed to dynamic insertion and removal of virtual software sub-layers. In one example, a virtual layer associated with a software application is virtually installed and activated in a computing device. A virtual sub-layer associated with a component of the software application is dynamically inserted in the virtual layer. The virtual layer remains active during the dynamic insertion of the virtual sub-layer. In certain embodiments, a process is executed from the virtual layer, a determination is made as to whether the process launched before or after the insertion of the virtual sub-layer, and the inserted virtual sub-layer is selectively made visible or invisible to the process based on the determination.