Approaches for composing the display of a virtualized web browser. Upon a host module, executing in a host operating system, of a virtualized web browser being instructed to display a new web page, policy data is consulted to determine if one or more trigger conditions are satisfied. Upon determining that at least one of the one or more trigger conditions is satisfied, the virtualized web browser, transparently to a user, retrieving and rendering the new web page in a location different than where the previous web page was retrieved and rendered by the virtualized web browser. After the new web page has been retrieved and rendered at the location specified by the policy data, the host module displays the new web page. The policy data may operate to specify the behavior of individual tabs of the virtualized web browser.