Pre-boot interfaces? What is this all about?

A pre-boot interface is an application provided by a third party supplier like CheckPoint, McAfee, Utimaco/Sophos, Secude and others. Once the computer is powered on, the pre-boot interface is started instead of the normal Windows Operating System (OS). Only after verifying the identity of the user as an authorized user, the normal OS is started. This authorization can be carried out using a USB token with charismathics middleware.
Pre-boot environments can provide strong hard-disk encryption and increase the security level of the protected computer.