Change the performance of foreground and background programs

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To change the performance of foreground and background programs

  1. Open System in Control Panel.

  2. On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.

  3. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.

  4. Under Processor scheduling, do one of the following:

    • Click Programs to assign more processor resources to the foreground program than the background program.

    • Click Background services to assign equal amounts of processor resources to all programs.

Notes

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.

  • To open System, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click System.

  • To open System from a command line as an administrator, type:

    runas /user: computername \Administrator "rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL sysdm.cpl"

  • Choosing the Programs option will result in a smoother, faster response time for your foreground program. If you want a background task, such as a Backup utility, to run faster, choose the Background services option.

  • The Programs option allocates short, variable time slices, or quanta, to running programs, while the Background services option assigns long, fixed quanta.

  • You can remotely change the performance of foreground and background programs using System Properties in the Computer Management snap-in. For more information, see Related Topics.

Information about functional differences

  • Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.

See Also

Concepts

Change the size of the virtual memory paging file
System Properties Overview - Control Panel
Managing your computer's performance
Change processor scheduling options