How to change application priority in Windows 10

As you may already know, Windows divides your computer's CPU resources among running applications. How many resources should be given to a process is determined by its priority. The higher the priority level, the more resources will be allocated to the process. In this article, we will see how you can set or change the priority of a process in Windows 10.

First of all, as in previous versions, in Windows 10 there are 6 priority levels at your disposal, as follows:

• Low
• Below normal
• Normal
• Above normal
• High
• In real time (Realtime)

The default level is usually the normal priority. Most applications start with this priority level and run without problems. However, the user can temporarily change the priority to speed up the application or slow it down to consume fewer resources. The new priority level requested by the user for an application will take effect until the application process is terminated. After termination, when the application is reopened, it will be at the default priority level (Normal), unless the application itself is configured to change its priority automatically.

Some applications can automatically adjust their priority. The popular file compression program WinRAR and 7-Zip are able to increase their priority to "Higher than normal" to speed up the compression process. Media player applications such as Winamp can also increase their priority during playback.

Before you proceed, you should know the following. The “real-time” priority level should not be set. Not unless you know what you are doing. This can cause system instability. An application running at this priority level can consume 100% of the CPU, cutting off keyboard and mouse service and rendering the PC temporarily unusable.

To change the Windows 10 process priority, do the following:

1. Open Task Manager. If you don't know how, move the cursor to the bottom taskbar, right-click and from the pop-up menu select “Task Manager”
2. Press the “More details” button to see all the tabs and go to the “Details” tab. There you will see all the applications and services currently running on your computer.
3. Right-click on the process you want to change its priority. In the submenu that you will see, select “Set priority”, and in the next submenu set the priority you want from the list of 6 priorities in total.
4. You will see the following dialog box: “Do you want to change the priority of the process “….” Changing the priority of some processes may cause system instability”. Select the “Change Priority” button and the change will be made. Otherwise, select the “Cancel” button and your choice will be canceled.

You can always see what priority each process you are running is set to if you choose to display the “Base Priority” column in the details tab.

Start an application with a specific priority

There is a way to start a process with the priority you want. This can be done with the “Start” command of the command line (cmd.exe). Here’s how:

1. Open the command prompt (cmd.exe).
2. Type or copy-paste the following command:

start "" /AboveNormal "C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe"

Windows will start the Notepad program with a priority of “higher than normal” instead of “normal” which is the normal value.
Of course the command works not only for Notepad, but for any program and for any priority level (for example, Belownormal, High, Normal etc.). Just be careful that you have typed the path of the application you want to change correctly.

Change the priority of a running application with wmic

Finally, using the wmic command tool, you can change the priority level of an application that is already running. This trick can be useful in various automation scenarios.

1. Open a command prompt.
2. Type or copy-paste the following command:

wmic process where name="Process Name" call setpriority "Priority Level"

Replace the “Process Name” part with the actual name of the application, for example, “notepad.exe”.
Replace the “Priority Level” part, according to the table below:

You can use the value number or the priority name. The following two examples give us the same thing:

wmic process where name="notepad.exe" call setpriority 32768 wmic process where name="notepad.exe" call setpriority "Above normal"

Good luck.