Prereload

Prereload is a software optimization concept referring to the practice of reloading or refreshing data, resources, or modules in advance of their anticipated use, in order to reduce latency during a subsequent operation. The exact meaning of prereload varies by domain, and the term is not a universally standardized one. In general, prereload sits between lazy loading and preloading: it involves refreshing content before it is immediately needed, but after an initial use or during idle time rather than at the moment of demand. The goal is to maintain a warm state so that when the next request arrives, the system can respond more quickly, at the cost of additional memory, bandwidth, or processing time.

Applications include web systems, where prereload may refresh or revalidate cached assets or re-fetch data expected to be needed for the next page or interaction. Platforms implement this with service workers, caches, or background tasks. In desktop or mobile software, prereload may reload modules or data in the background after a session ends or during idle periods to shorten future startup or navigation times. In games and multimedia, assets such as textures or sounds can be prereloaded when transitioning between levels to prevent runtime stutters. In databases, frequently accessed plans or caches may be primed in advance to speed up queries.

Design considerations include memory usage, data freshness, and correctness. Prereload runs the risk of stale data or wasted resources if predictions are inaccurate. It benefits from usage analytics, time-based schedules, or explicit signals of user intent to trigger reloads. Implementation often relies on asynchronous tasks, background threads, or service workers, and may be constrained by resource budgets or platform policies.

Related concepts include preloading, prefetching, cache warming, lazy loading, and hot data caching.