Do you know "Windows" shares the processor time between all running processes based upon their priority? If a process has higher priority, it gets more processor time compared to a process having lower priority.
But we can change process priority using "Windows Task Manager". Open Task Manager by right-clicking on Taskbar and select "Task Manager" or by pressing "Ctrl+Shift+Esc" keys together.
Once you open Task Manager, go to "Processes" tab, right-click on any running process and change the priority using "Set Priority" menu. You'll notice some system processes are set to "High" priority and almost all 3rd party processes are set to "Normal" by default.
Although you can change the priority according to your requirement, but the priority is not set permanently. Once you restart your system, Windows forgets your custom priority and assigns the process default priority.
So how to set a process priority permanent? Don't worry, here is the solution.
"Prio" is a free for personal use utility which solves the problem. It adds a new option "Save Priority" in "Set Priority" menu:
So now you can save the priority permanently.
It works in Windows XP, Vista and 7. It also adds a few extra features as mentioned below:
- Adds a new tab "Services" which shows the installed processes along with their status
- Adds another new tab "TCP/IP" which shows all established TCP/IP connections and all open ports
- Adds a new option "Silent Elevation" which allows you to execute a software with administrative privileges
You can download it using following link:
This article was posted by VG in following section: Software, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP.
If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe to our RSS feed or free newsletter to get all new articles directly in your Inbox. Also check out our most popular articles and archive to read other interesting articles. If you have some news or tip to share, please send us.
Larry Miller
This program can be useful but to use it properly you must understand how the priority system works. It does not work as the author has described. This description is highly simplistic and will be wrong more often than it is right. With rare exceptions a program will not run faster with a higher priority.
Setting priority to "Realtime" must be done very carefully. Except for some very rare cases this will accomplish nothing useful and may very well cause a system crash. The problem is that some critical system threads run at a lower priority than this and they could be starved of CPU time - with very unfortunate results.
Larry Miller
Microsoft MCSA
Tymon
The latest version of Prio is completely worthless... 1.99 only installs a DLL file which does absolutely nothing whatsoever.
Ash
Doesn't appear to do anything on windows 7 64 bit. after restarting any program it has reverted back to normal priority.
niche99
Prio 1.99 (x64) latest version fails to save priority settings both on WinXP (x64) and Win7 (x64).
I posted this bug on their forums only to find that my post had been deleted when I checked a day later. It would seem this company is no longer interested in Prio.
Nilanko
Crap. Doesn't work at all.
joe
doesn't appear to work in windows 7. the installer doesnt' ask permission to install either.
woodburyadpost
For those having issues with Win 7 64 bit. I was having the same issue. i fixed it by- 1. Installing. DO NOT REBOOT. 2. Uninstalling. DO NOT REBOOT. 3. Reinstalling. REBOOT!! Weird but after the first time it did not work i walked away for the day and came back the next day to try again. This was how i corrected it. hope it helps someone else.
ichimitch
Hi,
this is a great app. Just wondering if there is something similar out there to permanently set processor affinity?.. Been looking hard but turned up nothing..
michael
Prio does not save priority in Windows 7 64-bit.
Schu
For Win 7/64 users: Follow woodburyadpost instructions above. Worked great for me as well.