CPU Priority Shortcut for a Program - Create in Windows

How to Create a Shortcut to Run an Application with a Specific CPU Priority in Windows


information   Information
Windows shares the processor time between all running processes based upon their priority level. If a process has a higher priority, it gets more processor time compared to a process having a lower priority.

This tutorial will show you how to create a shortcut that will always run an application with a specific CPU priority by default in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

warning   Warning
You should not set processes to have a realtime priority since it could easily slow your system to a crawl by causing lower priority processes to not have the resources they need.




Here's How:

1. Right click or press and hold on an empty area of your desktop, and click/tap on New and Shortcut.

2. Type the command below into the location area, and click/tap on the Next button. (see screenshot below)
cmd.exe /c start "Program Name" /priority "Full path of application file"


For example: I would type this command below exactly if I wanted to create a shortcut to run Process Monitor using a high priority, and it's .exe file is located at "E:\Programs\Process Monitor 3.05\Procmon.exe".


cmd.exe /c start "Process Monitor" /High "E:\Programs\Process Monitor 3.05\Procmon.exe"
Note   Note
Substitute Program Name in the command with the actual program's name within quotes.

Note   Note

Substitute Full path of application file in the command with the full path of the file within quotes.​
Substitute priority in the command with the CPU priority level below you want the application file to run as.​
  • Realtime
  • High
  • AboveNormal
  • Normal
  • BelowNormal
  • Low

shortcut-1.jpg

3. Type any name you would like to give the shortcut, and click/tap on the Finish button. (see screenshot below)
shortcut-2.jpg

4. Right click or press and hold on the new shortcut, and click/tap on Properties.

5. Click/tap on the Shortcut tab, then click/tap on the Change Icon button. (see screenshot below)
Shortcut-3.png

6. In the line under "Look for icons in this file", copy and paste the same full path of the application file used in the shortcut below, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
For example: E:\Programs\Process Monitor 3.05\Procmon.exe​
Shortcut-4.jpg

7. Select (highlight) the icon you want for the shortcut, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot above)
NOTE: You can use any icon that you would like instead though.

8. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below step 5)

9. In Vista and Windows 7, you can now Pin to Taskbar (Windows 7 only) or Pin to Start Menu, add to Quick Launch, assign a keyboard shortcut to it, or move this shortcut to where you like for easy use.

10. In Windows 8, you can Pin to Taskbar on desktop, Pin to Start screen, add to Quick Launch, assign a keyboard shortcut to it, or move this shortcut to where you like for easy use.


That's it,
Shawn


 

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Thank you for the tip. I look forward to seeing which option works best for you. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
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    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
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You could probably create a .bat file to run the program, use a timeout command to wait a few seconds to let the secondary process run, then use the command below to change the secondary process priority to what you want. Substitute the parts in red below for what you want instead.

wmic process where name="process name" CALL setpriority "value"

Possible values: "idle", "low", "below normal", "normal", "above normal", "high priority", "realtime"

i was thinking in finding where the engine is located in my pc and patch the .bat there .. but that sounds a good solution.. can you explain it better to me ?

Edit: i found the engine location ., i will try this now. But i would still love the explanation about this method you said

Edit 2 : i put the engine on the path of the .bat file but now ny game crashes .. probably because it is no starting up with the first process ,.. guess i will need your explanation after all haha
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
The link in my post for the timeout command can show you more about how to use that command.

Which part did you need more help with? :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
The link in my post for the timeout command can show you more about how to use that command.

Which part did you need more help with? :)

I will have a look .. im not such a good computer geek haha ,. if i dont get something i will ask you here
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
Brink Help

I was thinking of using this on .bat file

cmd.exe /c start "xrEngine.exe" timeout/t 300 /nobreak /High "C:\Arquivos de Program (x86)\R.G. Mechanics\S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Call Of Pripyat\bin\xrEngine.exe"

will this be correct or do i have to do some changes ?

or maybe

cmd.exe /c start "Stalker-COP" timeout/t 300 /nobreak /High "C:\Arquivos de Program (x86)\R.G. Mechanics\S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Call Of Pripyat\bin\xrEngine.exe"

since the Stalker-COP is the first process to open

Edit: i just didnt understand where this "
wmic process where name="process name" CALL setpriority "value" "
comes in the bat

Edit2: i think the timeout comand is not recognized in windows 10 .. can you please help me Brink ?
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
The timeout command would need to be added like below instead to have a timeout before running the app.

The & symbol between separate commands allows you to run multiple commands on the same line.

timeout /t 300 /nobreak & wmic process where name="process name" CALL setpriority "value"
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
thanks a lot admin for this great tut

but is this possible to make this working for "WinRAR" ?

i mean the process of winrar is opened and closed upon the work of "extraction" and creating archives

this could be possible ?

i mean i download some archives and want to unrar them with high priority , but i need this to be done auto

as i do this many times: download RAR files, unrar, create archives

thanks in advance :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    server 2012
Hello mazzo, and welcome to Eight Forums. :)

I'm not sure that this will work for what you're wanting since a process is being used instead.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
ehmm , ok thanks a lot for your fast reply

i have searched for a tool which saves priority , so each time the process starts it keeps the priority "high"

but sadly i cannot find one works with windows server 2012 x64

regards
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    server 2012
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