1. A method of performing high-speed software downloads to and diagnostics testing of a target computer system in a manufacturing environment, the method comprising: booting the target computer system to a multi-tasking operating system (“OS”); launching a step sequencing engine application; the step sequencing engine application simultaneously launching a diagnostics platform and a software download manager; and the diagnostics platform initiating a plurality of diagnostics tests to be performed on the target computer system and the software download manager simultaneously launching a software download tool for downloading customer software to a hard drive of the target computer system.