How to Set Process Priority in
Windows 10 & 11

1. Open Task Manager — Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc simultaneously. Alternatively, right-click the Taskbar and select Task Manager, or press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and choose it from the menu.
2. Switch to the Details tab — In the Task Manager window, click on the Details tab. This view shows all running processes with their PID, status, CPU, and memory usage. (On Windows 11, it may open in the simplified view — click More details first.)
3. Locate the target process — Scroll through the list to find the process you want to adjust (e.g., game.exe, handbrake.exe). You can click the Name column header to sort alphabetically.
4. Right-click and choose Set Priority — Right-click on the process row. In the context menu, hover over Set priority. A submenu will appear showing all six priority levels.
5. Select the desired priority level — Click your chosen priority (e.g., High or Above Normal). A confirmation dialog will appear warning you about changing the priority.
6. Confirm the change — Click Change priority in the dialog. The new priority takes effect immediately. You'll see the Base Pri column update if it's visible.

Open PowerShell as Administrator

Press Win + X and select Windows PowerShell (Admin) or Terminal (Admin) on Windows 11. Administrator rights are required to set certain priority levels.

Change Priority by Process Name

Use Get-Process to find the process and .PriorityClass to assign a new level:

        PowerShell — Set process priority by name
        # Set a process to High priority
(Get-Process -Name "notepad").PriorityClass = "High"

# Set a process to Above Normal priority
(Get-Process -Name "handbrake").PriorityClass = "AboveNormal"

# Set a process to Below Normal priority
(Get-Process -Name "SearchIndexer").PriorityClass = "BelowNormal"

# Set a process to Idle (Low) priority
(Get-Process -Name "OneDrive").PriorityClass = "Idle"
      

Change Priority by Process ID (PID)

If multiple processes share the same name, target a specific one by its PID:

        PowerShell — Set process priority by PID
        # First, find the PID of the process
Get-Process -Name "chrome" | Select-Object Id, Name, PriorityClass

# Then set priority using the specific PID
(Get-Process -Id 8472).PriorityClass = "High"
      

Valid Priority Class Values for PowerShell

Launch a New Process with Priority Using START

The start command is the cleanest CMD method — it launches an application with a specific priority from the very beginning:

        CMD — Start command with priority flags
        :: Launch Notepad with High priority
start /high notepad.exe

:: Launch a game with AboveNormal priority
start /abovenormal "C:\Games\mygame.exe"

:: Launch a background tool with Low (Idle) priority
start /low "C:\Tools\backup.exe"

:: Launch with BelowNormal priority
start /belownormal synctool.exe
      

Valid START Command Priority Flags

Change Priority of a Running Process via WMIC

wmic (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line) lets you adjust the priority of a process that is already running:

        CMD — WMIC process priority (numeric values)
        :: Set notepad.exe to High priority (value: 128)
wmic process where name="notepad.exe" CALL setpriority 128

:: Set a process to Above Normal (value: 32768)
wmic process where name="handbrake.exe" CALL setpriority 32768

:: Set a process to Below Normal (value: 16384)
wmic process where name="OneDrive.exe" CALL setpriority 16384

:: Set a process to Idle/Low (value: 64)
wmic process where name="SearchIndexer.exe" CALL setpriority 64
      

WMIC Priority Numeric Reference