I get mixed up between the different versions of persistent all the time. Is a win 10/11 VDI or RDSH server that you re-deploy from a gold image from mcs or pvs because of an software update considered non persistent? Or is that image still persistent and non persistent refers to the users profile getting blown away at each logoff and a fresh one a login ? (like in a shared computer setting such as a library or something)

So W10/W10 single session or Serer 2019/2022 can be nonpersistent golden images. You can choose to use MCS Random(pooled) or PVS. The golden image has what you install, and then that is pushed out. If using Random/Pooled/Non-persistent, then yes, whatever the user does, meaning settings are typically grabbed by the profile management solution. Then, the VDA/PVS Targets reboot, and the image is nulled out and reverts back to the golden image on reboot = Non-persistent, for example. The golden image is persistent, but the VDAs or PVS targets are non-persistent, for example. However, you can also do Dedicated MCS Clones. So you can have an MCS golden image that will push out VDAs, but the machines can be Full clones. Therefore, the VDAs are treated as persistent machines, for example. It's all about what provisioning method you choose. Hopefully I answered you

Ah, that is the missing mental key for me, Thanks!

My term "things go back to the golden image" just means the VDA is wiped and when rebooted is a fresh image based on the verison you have in PVS, or based on the Snapshot delta file you are using with MCS

Like @Ray Davis has already said, but maybe a simpler version: Non-persistent = virtual machines that when rebooted are reverted to a previous image (vm is deleted and recreated). A roaming profile solution is used to maintain the user experience regardless of the virtual machines state.

Profile persistence and machine persistence are two different things. I tend to separate them out. As AVD has no native machine persistence technology some people get confused and call them non-persistent when they just mean the profile doesn't persist

Thanks all. Yes, \I wish vendors would be more specific and call out profile persistence and machine persistence. That gets me sometimes as well.