Through its public relations firm, Microsoft confirmed on Thursday that the survey, screenshots of which were posted on the , was sent out to some users. The company would not comment specifically on the survey, saying only that Microsoft "routinely does research about various scenarios to see what customers are interested in having their computers do."

Microsoft said it's "too early" to discuss Instant On specifically. However, the company may be considering it as a feature of Windows 7, the next version of its client OS, which is expected to be released late next year or in early 2010.

In the survey, Microsoft asks users their opinion of Instant On, which "takes your computer from being completely powered down or 'turned off' to being usable for a few specific activities in a very short amount of time," according to a posted on the Web.

Microsoft distinguished between an Instant On Windows experience and a "Full Windows" experience by describing Instant On as limiting what activities users can do with the OS and what applications they have access to.

Providing extremely fast boot-up for PCs is not a new concept, and companies have been experimenting with ways to do it by giving people access only to some information on their PCs and other devices without having to power up the full OS.