Start applications on specific CPU and priority

Posted on February 14th, 2007 by Jason

There is a great little utility that has been around for ages in Windows called the start command. This dos command allows you to start any process with advanced settings. In Windows Vista it is perfect if you want to start an application and tell windows to only run it on one CPU and at a high priority level. For example, let’s say that you want to start Microsoft Paint and have it run on your second CPU core at Above Normal priority. The command below will accomplish this:

start /affinity 2 /abovenormal mspaint.exe

You can customize the command above and replace the 2 with the processor number (in hex) that you want the processor to run on. You can also adjust the priority level by using one of the flags below:

/Low
/Normal
/High
/Realtime
/Abovenormal
/Belownormal

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 9:28 am and is filed under Windows Vista. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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5 Responses to “Start applications on specific CPU and priority”

  1. Delooni.com - the world of IT Tips on 16 Feb 2007 at 5:31 am #

    that has been around for ages in Windows called the start command. This dos command allows you to start any process with advanced settings. In Windows Vista it is perfect if you want to start an application and tell windows to only run it on one CPUand at a high priority level. For example, let’s say that you want to start Microsoft Paint and have it run on your second CPU core at Above Normal priority. The command below will accomplish this:

  2. cpu - somdaj.com » Start applications on specific CPU and priority on 14 Feb 2007 at 11:10 am #

    [...] There is a great little utility that has been around for ages in Windows called the start command. This dos command allows you to start any process with advanced settings. In Windows Vista it is perfect if you want to start an application and tell windows to only run it on one CPU and at a high priority level. For example, let’s say that you want to start Microsoft Paint and have it run on your second CPU core at Above Normal priority. The command below will accomplish this: (more…) [...]

  3. Ron Bridges on 07 Jul 2007 at 10:12 pm #

    how do I get all Norton activity to occur on core 1? I tried task manager but it didn’t seem to work and the only reason I can figure as to why that might be is because Norton Internet Security is already running in the background and therefore locked my priviledge to change it.

  4. toadster on 27 Jul 2008 at 5:40 pm #

    Do you have to do this everytime you start the application or is it an one – off?
    Thx.

  5. How to run an app on one processor only « Professional blog site of Vinu Baby on 25 Aug 2008 at 1:25 am #

    [...] Start applications on specific CPU and priority [...]

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