How Can I Run an Application at a Higher Priority?

A. It is possible to start an application at a priority other than normal, however if you run applications at high priority THEY may slow performance. Priorities range from 0 to 31, 0 - 15 are used by Dynamic applications, such as user applications and most of the operating system parts, 16-31 are used by real time applications like the kernel which cannot be written to the page file. Normal priority is level 8 (NT 3.51 normal was 7). The full list is

To start an application at a priority other than the default use the start command, e.g.

start / , e.g. start /high winword

To do the same thing from a shortcut just use:

cmd /c start /

Be warned that if you run applications at high priority, that may slow performance as other application get less I/O time. (See also, "How can I improve I/O performance?"). To use the /realtime option you have to be logged on as a user with Administrator privileges.

To modify the privilege of a currently running application use Task Manager

It is also possible to increase the priority of whichever application is currently in the foreground, as opposed to the background processes.

See also, "Thread priority."