Skip to main content

Using Task Manager to adjust priorities

The Windows Task Manager is something that we all have experience with when we have problems with a frozen program. The Task Manager is actually a very useful utility. Another use of the Task Manager is to change the priority at which an application is running while it is running. The Task Manager makes it possible to dynamically change the priority of application. This capability can be very useful when you have a lot of programs running on your computer.

Setting any application to real time can be dangerous, because doing so will allow the application to hog all of the CPU time and will make exiting a program that is running at this high priority impossible, if for some reason it crashes. Because the program is hogging all of the CPU time, it takes a very long time to just load the Task Manager to end the application.

If you have a program that is doing a lot of CPU-intensive operations, such as rendering a video clip or a game, you can adjust the priority of the application by following these steps:

1. Load the Task Manager by clicking the Start Menu and selecting Run. Then type
taskmgr.exe in the text box and click the OK button.

2. Once Task Manager loads, click the Processes tab.

3. Right-click the name of the process for which you would like to adjust the priority, select Set Priority, and then select the level.

4. After you click the priority level, your change is complete.

If your computer has multiple processors or supports hyperthreading, then you will notice an extra option when you right-click a process called Set Affinity. This option will allow you to specify on which CPU the application will run (or which virtual CPU, in the case of hyperthreading
users).

Using the Task Manager to change the priority levels is great. However, there is one downside. When an application on which you have altered its priority level is closed, the priority level it was running at will be lost. The next time the program is started up, it will be running back at the default level. This can be a real annoyance for some users; however, there is a great trick to fix this problem, which will be shown in the next section.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using the quick boot feature of the BIOS

All systems initialize in more or less the same way. During the power on self-test mentioned earlier, the BIOS checks the hardware devices and counts the system memory. Out of all of the different types of system memory, the random access memory, better known as RAM, takes the longest to be counted. Counting the RAM takes time, and on a machine that has large amounts of RAM, this calculation can take several seconds. For example, a machine that has 512MB of RAM may take up to 3 seconds just to count the memory. On top of the RAM counting, a few other tests need to be done because your computer wants to make sure that all of the hardware in your computer is working properly. All of these system tests are not needed every time you boot, and can be turned off to save time. Most BIOS's offer a feature called quick boot. This feature will allow the user to turn off these tests. Other BIOSs only allow you to turn off the memory check, which will still cut down on a lot of time....
Post a Comment
Read more

Rapidshare Timelimit

Directions Rapidshare traces the users IP address to limit each user to a certain amount of downloading per day. To get around this, you need to show the rapidshare server, a different IP address. You can do this one of multiple ways. Requesting a new IP address from your ISP server. Here's how to do it in windows: 1. Click Start 2. Click run 3. In the run box type cmd.exe and click OK 4. When the command prompt opens type the following. ENTER after each new line. ipconfig /flushdns ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew exit 5. Erase your cookies in whatever browser you are using. 6. Try the rapidshare download again. Frequently you will be assigned a new IP address when this happens. Sometime you will, sometimes you will not. If you are on a fixed IP address, this method will not work. To be honest, I do not know how to do this in linux/unix/etc. If this works for you, you may want to save the above commands into a batch file, and just run it when you need it.
Post a Comment
Read more

File and Folder Permissions

Windows XP Professional boxes running the NTFS file system have the capability to set indi vidual file permissions on both files and folders. File and folder permissions allow you to specify exactly who will be able to read, write, execute, and even list or access a folder. So, file and folder permissions can be a very powerful tool to protect your data from others' eyes. If your file system is FAT32, then you will not be able to set permissions. Fortunately, an easy way exists for you to convert your FAT32 file system to NTFS. Do a search in the Windows Help and Support Center for Convert to NTFS and you will be shown directions on how you can go about converting your drive's file system. Setting the permissions on with a lot of control requires you to disable simple file sharing and security. To do so, follow these steps: 1 . Open up any folder on your computer and expand the Tools menu and select Folder Options. 2 . Click the View tab and scroll to the bottom of the Adv...
Post a Comment
Read more