I think it's great that PCs keep getting faster. Who doesn't? But here's the thing: unless you're a gamer, the only time you'll really notice a modern PC's speed is when you start it up. And although faster machines boot up more quickly than slower ones, even today's speediest PC takes a while to get booted up, settled in, relaxed, and ready to work.

I use my ThinkPad X40's relaxed start-up and login sequence each morning as an excuse to get some coffee and schmooze with coworkers before I buckle down and start my morning e-mail ritual. But when I'm on the road, this won't do. If I have a few minutes to work on e-mail or I need to check an appointment in a jiffy, I can't be waiting around for the machine to boot. That's why I often use the computer's standby mode (where it's almost shut down--you just open the lid and it comes back to life) when I travel. It's faster than power-cycling the laptop but unfortunately not reliable; after a few start-up/standby cycles, the machine gets wonky, and I have to reboot. I've had this problem with every PC I have ever used.

So there are two solutions for a PC user like me: Either use a synchronized PDA for part of the job--I use a Good G100, which I love--or look into utilities that don't require you to wait for Windows. These emerging preboot utilities sidestep the power-up cycle and let you do limited tasks without loading Windows at all.

Party down without booting up
The most popular of these are media players. Several multimedia-friendly laptops will let you play music CDs without starting Windows, for instance. Some even play movies, a nice feature if you're on an airplane and just want to zone out, and running without the OS will save you some battery time. Although as our laptops editor, Justin Jaffe, pointed out to me, if you're going to sit through a movie, you might as well start up Windows so that you have full access to your PC and your media player's functions. Also, preboot music players don't play MP3s, which is a big limitation.

People who build their own desktop systems can also find preboot media players on motherboards. My Asus A8V-based system, for example, plays CDs without Windows. However, this feature doesn't work if you use a USB keyboard, which I do, or use the digital audio output on the motherboard.

Sneak a peek at Outlook
I just heard about an interesting utility from BIOS maker Phoenix, called FirstWare Assistant. It lets you get a quick look at your Outlook data without loading Windows. During boot, if you press the FirstWare key (F by default), FirstWare loads up instead of Windows, and you can check your calendar, contacts, and e-mail archives. It's a very slick solution if you're in a taxi, for example, and need to pull up an e-mail or street address.

I tried this FirstWare feature on a Dell laptop, and it worked as advertised. It was much, much quicker to get data from the FirstWare preboot environment that to start Windows and Outlook and check things out there.

Downside: The preboot FirstWare app doesn't read Outlook files directly. Instead, the product installs an Outlook plug-in that synchronizes your Outlook data with FirstWare. It automatically runs the sync process each time you start Outlook and each time you close the software, so it's never out of sync. The first time you run the product, it takes a while to create the sync file. And FirstWare won't go online to get or send mail; it's only for reading what's already on your system. If you already have a synchronized PDA, you don't really need it.

Nonetheless, FirstWare Assistant is a clever utility that will likely show up on laptops soon. You can also download it today.

The one thing I haven't tried is installing more than one preboot application or utility per machine. Frankly, that idea scares me. I'd worry that having more than one app waiting for its magic key press could confuse users or make the Windows start-up take even longer, which strikes me as a fool's bargain.

We wouldn't be in the position of having to use preboot applications if Windows itself were more robust, faster, or more stable when resuming from standby. But as usual, clever companies are filling in Windows' gaps--in this case by sidestepping the operating system entirely.

What do you think? Does using a preboot application make sense to you? What other preboot apps would you like to see? Share your opinion in TalkBack!