Have you ever changed the priority of a process in the Task Manager?
Do you have to do it often?
Do you want your database server or media player to know the priority it should work with?

If so, you have two choices: do it manually every time or automate/manage the process. If you prefer the latter then a tool you should check out is Prio Process Priority Saver.

Once installed, you just set the priority preferences of the processes you want to modify and then make sure the option to save is checked. Then the next time the program starts your saved settings will be applied automatically. This utility is ideal for power users or system admins who are looking to get more control over their server processes.

Keeping with the recent theme of Windows Task Manager, an idea I got from an article I read a while back (sorry, I can’t find the article), suggested setting Windows Task Manager as an item in your start up folder as a way to easily keep tabs on system resources. I started doing this about a month ago and it seems to be working really well for me (note: I’ve since replaced Task Manager with Process Explorer).

I have a shortcut to Process Explorer in my Startup folder (Start > Programs > Startup) so that every time I log into Windows, it automatically starts. Setting the shortcut preferences to start minimized and using the option in Process Explorer to hide when minimized causes the program to launch and automatically minimize itself to the system tray. This way I can view the live usage graph without having to do anything and allows me to see if any “spikes” in system usage occur.

For anyone who like to keep an eye on their system’s resources, this is definitely a handy trick.

Windows Task Manager, as you probably know, allows you to view all the active applications and processes currently running on your computer. This is a very handy tool when troubleshooting or just getting an overall view of your computer.

One tool I have found better than Task Manager is Process Explorer. This free tool allows you a much more detailed view of what is going on with your system. Additionally, it has all the functionality of Task Manager, including the ability to “kill” tasks.

One of really great features of Process Explorer is the ability to replace Task Manager (Options > Replace Task Manager). When you select this option, any way which you normally would invoke Task Manager (except by explicitly running it) will bring up Process Explorer instead. This is really something that once you do, you don’t want to go back.

As you probably know, Task Manager is what you use in Windows to view (and kill) currently active processes. There are several ways you can easily open Task Manager so I thought I would list four easy ones here:

1. Ctrl + Alt + Del > Click Task Manager. This is the most commonly used method.
2. Right click on the Task Bar and select “Task Manager” from the popup menu.
3. Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
4. Start > Run > taskmgr. This is handy for making a shortcut.

There you have it. If you have an easier way, post it below.