How to Change the Priority of a Process in Windows 10

At this time we can say that Windows 10 is a very powerful operating system as well as complete. In addition to all this we can add that this software does not stop evolving and growing, so this versatility is increasing over the months.

To all this we can add the innumerable applications that we have the possibility to install in it, which makes the PC a very useful tool. Whether for work or leisure time, a Windows 10-based computer offers us solutions of all kinds. What’s more, the operating system itself, once we install it from scratch, presents us with a series of pre-installed programs so that we don’t need to use other solutions. Although these are not usually to everyone’s liking, there we have them at our disposal.

Change the Priority of a Process in Windows 10

How to see running processes in Windows

Similarly, Windows 10 has a huge number of internal functions that are working almost constantly in the background. To give us an idea of it, we just have to access the Task Manager to see everything that is running at all times. For this we can use the key combination Ctrl + Shift + Esc and thus see the processes in operation, which are many.

Administrador de tareas procesos

In fact, these refer both to the system itself, and to the programs or services running. And that is not all that we are going to see here, since at the same time the system shows us other interesting data about these elements. We can see the memory and CPU consumption that each of them does in real time, for example. In the same way and in the same window, we will see how much GPU it uses or the percentage of hard disk.

All of this will be of great help to us to see if any Windows program or process is making an exaggerated consumption of the computer to be able to close it.

Manage processes more effectively

Keep in mind that, every time we run a program in Windows, the operating system itself automatically assigns a priority to the process that is created. In this way, the aforementioned new process that appears in the Task Manager will have more or less computer resources. This is something that Windows itself does depending on the use of the application in question.

In this way, it is most likely that what is running in the foreground has a greater amount of resources available. With this, what is achieved is that what we are using at that time can function normally and without performance problems on the PC. Of course, although this is something that is usually quite effective in most cases, it is not always the case. With this, what we want to tell you is that this automatic prioritization may not work properly. As you can imagine, this poor prioritization directly affects the operation of the programs.

It is worth mentioning that to have greater control over the processes that are running in Windows, just click on any with the right mouse button. Here, in the Task Manager, a menu appears that allows us to close it, see its details, open its real location, etc.

Menú contextual procesos

Change the priority of processes

Returning to what interests us in this case, the priority of these processes, as we say, is assigned automatically. But it may be the case that on some occasion we have found that a program does not work as it should. This can be more commonly given in demanding software such as a video editor or a game , among others. Therefore we can find that it is blocked or is too slow. This is something that will result in your computer appearing to have performance issues, when it shouldn’t.

Well, if necessary, sometimes this can happen because Windows assigns a priority to that process, too low. Thus, the system automatically assigns a higher priority to other processes or applications that do not need it at that time. Therefore, the application that really interests us does not work as it should or as other times. Luckily we have the possibility to change the priority of a process manually.

With this, what we are going to achieve is that if we need a program to perform at its best, do it without any problem, let’s see how we can do it. This is something that we achieve from the aforementioned Windows Task Manager that we access by pressing Control + Shift + Esc, as we mentioned before. It should be mentioned that in the list of processes that appears at that time, we cannot change the priority of the processes directly. Therefore, for this we have to click with the right button of the mouse on the one that interests us, and we go to Go to details.

Detalles de procesos

Task Manager Details Tab Utility

Once the steps we have discussed have been taken, this takes us to a new page where we can see all the processes that are running on the PC. Of course, at this time we should have highlighted the process of the application from which we have reached this tab in the previous step. Therefore, to carry out what interests us here, we click on that entry with the secondary button.

Now new options appear on the screen, among which we see called Set priority. As you can imagine, this is the one that interests us now, since through it we can change the priority of Windows processes.

Cambiar prioridad proceso

At this point you have to know that the default priority is Normal. But of course, from this menu option we have the possibility to choose if we want to give more or less priority to the process in question. Thus, to increase its importance and for Windows to allocate more resources to it, we can choose between Above normal, High or Real time. This is something that we ourselves can choose depending on the other applications that are running, since this change could negatively affect them.

We say that this can be very useful with the most demanding and powerful programs we use, or games that use Windows.