Windows 11 will allocate system resources to the programs that need them most by setting priorities to applications. Most applications run at the default priority level. Sometimes, however, you may need to run a program, such as a game, at a higher than default normal level. Next, this article will introduce you how to set high priority for applications on Windows 11.
What is the application high priority?
Windows 11 has a total of six priorities for running different processes and programs – Low, Below Normal, Normal, Above Normal, High, and Real Time. Applications with higher priority receive more resources. Therefore, services and processes that are very important to Windows 11 will run with high priority. Normally, Windows 11 will automatically allocate resources to prioritize important processes.
If you want an app to run faster, you can set its priority to the “High” category, which is much higher than normal. But doing so will take some resources away from where they are needed most, e.g. other applications will run slower.
Should you make application high priority?
Whether you should set application high priority depends on your processor as well as the task itself.
If the application is not resource-intensive, setting a high priority has little effect on other tasks. If you plan to set high priority for some game programs, the impact on your system will be more obvious.
What should you do before making application high priority?
Before setting the application as a high priority, you need to do the following preparations.
Disable UAC
UAC (User Account Control) will prevent you from making priority changes, thus protecting your system from potentially harmful effects. So after you’ve made sure the app is set as high priority, it’s best to disable it:
Click Start and search for UAC. Select Change User Account Control settings.
Move the notification slider all the way down to “Never notify.”
Then click OK.
Grant application administrator privileges
What you need to do in addition to disabling UAC is to give administrator privileges to the high-priority applications you want to set.
Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to launch task manager.
Find the process for the application you want to set up in Task Manager, right-click it and select Properties.
Click on the Security tab.
Click the Edit box.
By clicking the box under Allow.
Click OK.
Click OK again.
What are the different Priority IDs?
If using a command terminal such as PowerShell and the command prompt given below, you must enter the priority ID to change the priority of an app process. These priority IDs are as follows:
Low – 64
Below normal – 16384
Normal – 32
Higher than normal – 32768
High – 128
Real time – 256
To set a high priority for an application, you need the priority ID number “128”.
How to set high priority for apps in Windows 11?
Next we will detail six ways how to set a high priority for an application.
Method 1: Set high priority using PowerShell
1 Press Start, type powershell, right-click the result, and select Run as administrator.
3 Replace ProcessName with the full name of the application executable (and its extension) and PriorityLevelID with the high priority ID number 128 and press Enter.
That’s all for 3 steps to set your app as high priority using PowerShell.
Method 2: Use the wmic command in the command prompt
1 Press Start, type cmd, then right-click the best matching result and select Run as administrator.
2 Type the following command:
wmic process where name=”ProcessName” CALL setpriority ProrityLevelID
3 Make sure to replace ProcessName with the name of your application and PriorityLevelID with 128 (for high priority) and press Enter.
That’s all for 3 steps to set your app as high priority using wmic command.
Method 3: Start high-priority applications
In addition to setting the priority of applications that are already running. You can also start an application with a high priority using Command Prompt.
1 Open a command prompt with administrative privileges, and type the following command:
start “”/’Prioritylevel’ “ApplicationPath”
2 Make sure to replace “Prioritylevel” with High (without quotes) and Replace ApplicationPath with the full path to your application (with quotes).
This makes it possible to start an application with high priority.
Method 4: Permanently set application high priority
Normally, after changing the application priority, if you restart the PC, the priority change will be reverted to before the change. To make the changes permanent, you can add a shortcut to the application to the Command Prompt command.
1 Navigate to the application’s folder, right-click it and select Show more options.
2 Select Send To , then select Desktop (Create Shortcut).
3 Right-click the shortcut and select Properties.
4 The location of the application will be displayed next to the Target field.
5 Move the cursor to the beginning of the location path, and copy the following:
%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c start “” /high
6 Paste the copied content before the location of the application in the Target field.
7 Click OK.
After doing the above, every time you use the shortcut to run this application, it will run with high priority.
Method 5: Use Task Manager to change processor affinity for high-priority applications
1 Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys to open Task Manager. Then tap the icon in the upper left corner.
2 Then select Details.
3 Search for your application, right-click it and select Set affinity.
4 Uncheck some processors to limit the number of CPU cores available to the application.
5 Click OK.
Should you run your application first in real time?
The answer is no. Real-time priority is mostly reserved for applications that must “talk” directly to hardware, such as keyboards and mice, or tasks that need to run continuously. Therefore it is not recommended to run the application with real-time priority.
