At this point we are pushing zoom in an appstack. As long as the application does not install in %APPDATA% of any other folder in the profile this shoudl do the trick. You do need to look for administrative installers of applications. Normally a software vendor will deliver those and give you the option to disable updates.
If you do have an applications that updates frequently I would suggest using appstacks for that, you are much quicker with updating an application in an appstack then in the Golden Image.
Is everyone uses the appliation and it needs to be there period you might wanna for installation in the GI. Depends on how clean you would like your GI to be.