How to Designate CPU Usage

Normally Windows designates CPU usage automatically.

At any given moment there are dozens of programs and system processes running on your computer, each of which consumes precious processing power. While Windows does a good job of distributing CPU resources evenly between tasks, sometimes it makes more sense to designate CPU usage yourself. You might want to assign more CPU power to processing a video project that's due in an hour, for example. Or perhaps you want to give fewer resources to an anti-virus program so you can use your computer and scan for malware at the same time. Regardless of your situation, designating the CPU usage in Windows helps you squeeze more performance out of your computer.

Instructions

1. Start the program for which you wish to adjust the CPU usage. Press "Ctrl," "Alt" and "Delete" at the same time on your keyboard. Select "Start Task Manager" to open the Windows Task Manager on Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems. The Task Manager opens automatically in Windows XP and older.

2. Right-click on the program name under "Applications" and select "Go to Process." Alternatively, you can click the "Processes" tab and manually select a process. Note that the process must be running for you to designate CPU usage.

3. Right-click on the appropriate process and select "Set Affinity." This allows you to designate which parts of the CPU the program can use, but only if your processor supports hyper threading, has multiple cores, or if you have multiple processors.

   By default, all the CPUs are selected. The main CPU is labeled "CPU 0." Uncheck the CPUs you do not wish for the program to run in and select "OK." You must check at least one processor.

4. Right-click the same process again, but this time select "Set Priority." Choose a priority from the menu. The default option is "Normal." Select "Realtime" or "Normal" to increase priority. This devotes more of your computer to this program, but slows down the many other processes that share resources on your computer. If the process is unimportant to you, you can free up resources for other programs by selecting "Below Normal" or "Low."

5. Close the Task Manager. Repeat for other processes if desired. Note that the new CPU designations are not permanently saved. They will reset to the operating system default if you restart the computer or reopen the program after closing it. Third-party software is available to fix this shortcoming.

Tips & Warnings

• Setting multiple processes to "High" or "Realtime" could cause system instability.

References

• Microsoft Technet: Analyzing Processor Activity.

Resources

• PC Stats: Beginners Guides- 99 Performance Tips for Windows XP