Ever fantasized about booting into Windows Vista in four seconds flat? Well, Asustek's budged motherboard wing, ASRock claims to have found a way to do just that - you can clean boot to your Windows desktop in just a few seconds, even after a proper shut down.

ASRock has found a way to take advantage of the S3 and S4 features of ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) of motherboards, which are normally used in the Sleep/Standby and Hibernation modes in Windows respectively.

ASRock does this by calling them at different times during the boot-up and shutdown process, thus allowing motherboards with Instant Boot to boot up to your Windows desktop in three to four seconds, even after a proper Shut Down.

There are two modes available - Fast Mode, in which S3 is used and the boot up is achieved in around four seconds, and Regular Mode, using S4, taking between 20 and 22 seconds to boot. When compared to the normal Sleep and Hibernation modes, Instant Boot has an advantage of a clean boot of Windows and you do not have what ASRock calls 'accumulated garbage data,'. Also, you get the security of knowing that you will not lose any data in case of a power cut, though this advantage applies only when using the Regular Mode.

ASRock advises against switching off AC power to the PC when using the Fast Mode, indicating that it is probably very much similar to the standby mode, in which the memory has to be continuously refreshed and fed with power. ASRock says that Instant Boot only works on Windows systems with a single-user account and no password.

As of now, Instant Boot can be enabled on five of ASRock's boards, based on AMD's 780G and 790GX chipsets, and Intel's P45 and P43 chipsets. If you already have one of these motherboards, you can download the appropriate BIOS updates from this link. ASRock has also released a video to demonstrate this feature and you can check that out below.