Setting process priority everytime it is launched?

Option 1

There is Prio. Prio extends the Windows standard TaskManager and adds a "Save priority" option to the "Set Priority" menu.

caveat #1: I used it a while ago (under Win-XP) and it worked fine, but I did not test it extensively.

caveat #2: Reason for deinstalling was licensing because:

Prio - is distributed as freeware for personal use only. This means: All copyrights to Prio are exclusively owned by O&K Software Ltd. The program is free for personal use only. The business license has the cost $19.95 USD.

(quote from their website)

Option 2

I found ProcessTamer which may also help with your problem (maybe even more so). It seems to be freeware - the author just likes you to register for a free license key (otherwise a few nag windows pop up).

Option 3

If you want this only for a few select programs, you can create a batchfile that does not call it directly but indirectly via start (the Windows command shell built-in) and then use that batchfile (a shortcut to it).

start can be used with the following options that set the process priority:

  • /LOW
  • /NORMAL
  • /HIGH
  • /REALTIME
  • /ABOVENORMAL
  • /BELOWNORMAL

Changing the application shortcut to 'start /low [program.exe]' should work for you.

This technically can work for things that don't start automatically. If you want it for a startup program, you can do this to the shortcut and put it into the StartUp folder obviously. If I wanted to run: C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:"C:\dev_dir" I would have to:

1) Set "Start in" to the folder the actual executing file (TortiseProc.exe in this example) is located so: "C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin"

2) Set the target to run CMD w/ "/C" to run the string following "/C" then exit, then use that to run START /PRIORITY [executable] [parameters]. In my case, I used the following:

%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /C start /BELOWNORMAL TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:"C:\dev_dir"

%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe Starts the command prompt

/C executes the following code,

start /BELOWNORMAL TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:"C:\dev_dir" actually starts the program given that you correctly "Start in" to the directory where the executable is located.

Hopefully that helps somebody.


ProcessHacker allows priorities to be set and saved for individual processes:

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Process Hacker was started in 2008 as an open source alternative to programs such as Task Manager and Process Explorer.

Licence: GNU General Public License version 3.0 GPLv3