I lightly rinse the worst dishes while loading until the water gets really hot at the sink next to the dishwasher. Having that prewash be very hot does a lot to make sure it gets it good in my experience.

US dishwashers tend to assume the incoming water is from the hot water line and is pretty hot. It takes a bit for the tub to actually get the water very hot, so you'll end up spending most of the pre-wash step with only mildly warm water if you don't get the hot water there first.

Run the hot water at the sink until it's hot then the dishwasher should have hot water from the start.