Tools

Priority WatchDog

Automatic process & thread priority control

Many applications for Windows forget to set their priorities correctly, causing background render jobs to slow down the responsiveness of foreground tasks.

By using the handy "Auto" setting, this systray application offers a way to automatically lower the priority of any program that's been using a lot of CPU for a long time. Once the program stops using a lot of CPU, Priority Watchdog will raise its priority back to normal.

Requires Microsoft Windows 7 or later and .NET 4.7.2

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The systray icon shows CPU, Disk access and memory usage.

screenshot

Left: CPU usage. If the red area is at 100%, it means that processing power corresponding to one core is being used. If the yellow bar is at 100% all cores are at maximum.
Middle: Disk activity.
Right: Memory usage.

To open the status window, right-click the systray icon and choose "Show status". In the status window you can right-click a process and select the desired priority. Pressing "R" will refresh the process list. Escape closes the window.

How to Install with Limited Power

Use this approach if you want to limit PriorityWatchDog to only have access to the programs you started yourself.

Delete the file "PriorityWatchDog.exe.config".
Press Left-WinKey + R, typing "shell:startup".
Then make shortcut to PriorityWatchDog.exe there.

How to Install with Full Power

Use this approach if you want PriorityWatchDog to be able to control the priority of programs started by any user.

Use the Windows Task Scheduler to create a "basic task" and set it to start when you log on.
Enable the checkbox "Run with highest privileges".
Set it to start delayed after 1 minute, or the systray icon might not show up.

Website by Joachim Michaelis