Do you have a lot of programs running at the same time and want to set affinity to use only certain cores? In this guide, we’ll show you the steps to set processor affinity on Windows 10. When you have a multi-core processor in your PC, Windows 10 can distribute the processing power of those cores across different programs.
However, there may be times when you want a particular program or game to use only specific cores. That’s where you need to configure processor affinity.
- Right-click on the Windows 10 Start button and select Task Manager from the drop-down menu
- In the Processes tab, click on the process that you want to set the affinity for
- Select the Details tab and find the process in the list
- Right-click on the process and select Set Affinity from the context menu that appears
- Check or uncheck processor cores as desired and click OK when finished to apply changes
How Do I Permanently Set Affinity for a Program in Windows 10?
If you want to set the affinity for a program on your Windows 10 machine, there are a few different ways to do it. In this article, we’ll show you how to do it using Task Manager, Command Prompt, and PowerShell. Task Manager
The first way to set the affinity for a program is by using the Task Manager. To open the Task Manager, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc or right-click on the taskbar and select “Task Manager”. Once the Task Manager is open, click on the “Details” tab and find the program you want to set the affinity for.
Right-click on that program and select “Set Affinity”. A new window will pop up with checkboxes for each of your processor cores. Check or uncheck these boxes as desired and then click “OK” to save your changes.
Command Prompt Another way to set the affinity for a program is by using the Command Prompt. To open the Command Prompt, type cmd into the Start Menu search and press Enter.
Once the Command Prompt is open, type in tasklist /fi “image name eq [program name]” (without quotes) and press Enter. This command will list all processes with the same name as your specified program. Find the PID (process ID) number of your desired process from this list and note it down somewhere.
After that, type in start /affinity [mask] [PID number] (without quotes) and press Enter again. Replace [mask] with hexadecimal values corresponding to which cores you want your program to run on (eg: if you want cores 0 & 1 only then the mask should be 3). Finally, replace [PID number] with the actual PID number of the process noted earlier without brackets e.g.: start /affinity 3 1234
PowerShell You can also use PowerShell instead of Command Prompt if you prefer that over the cmd interface. To launch PowerShell either type PowerShell in the Start Menu search or simply right-click on Start Button → select Windows PowerShell from the menu items displayed. Now in the PowerShell console type Get-Process -Name “[program name]”. Again this will give a list of all processes running with the same image name as the given input so identify the correct PID from here just like we did via the command prompt.
What Does Set Affinity Do in Windows?
When you set processor affinity, you are essentially telling Windows which CPU core(s) to run a particular process on. By default, Windows will spread processes across all available CPU cores in an attempt to keep things running smoothly. However, in some cases, it can be beneficial to specifically assign certain processes to specific cores.
For example, if you have a dual-core processor and one core is significantly faster than the other, you may want to set an affinity for resource-intensive processes so that they only run on the faster core. There are a few different ways to set processor affinity in Windows. The most straightforward way is to use the Task Manager.
Simply right-click on the process you want to change and select “Set Affinity.” From here, you can check or uncheck individual CPU cores to enable or disable them for that process. Another way to set processor affinity is through the Command Prompt.
This method requires using a few commands, but it gives you more control over which cores are used and how processes are distributed between them. First, open the Command Prompt and type “tasklist /svc” followed by Enter. This will give you a list of all running services and their corresponding Process IDs (PIDs).
Find the PID of the process you want to modify and note it down somewhere. Next, type “start /affinity [mask]” where [mask] is replaced with a number corresponding to the CPUs you want to enable for that process. For example, if you wanted to run a process on just CPU 0, the command would be “start /affinity 1”.
If you wanted to run it on both CPUs 0 and 1, the command would be “start /affinity 3”. And so on. You can also use this method with task kill instead of start if you want to kill a specific process rather than starting one.
How Do I Change Affinity in Windows 11?
There are a few different ways that you can change affinity in Windows 11. The first way is to do it through the Task Manager. To open the Task Manager, press “Ctrl+Shift+Esc” on your keyboard.
Once the Task Manager is open, find the process that you want to change the affinity for and right-click on it. In the menu that pops up, select “Set Affinity.” A new window will appear with a checkbox for each of your processors.
You can check or uncheck these boxes to set which processors you want the process to run on. Another way to change affinity is through the Command Prompt. To open the Command Prompt, type “cmd” into the search bar and click on the icon when it appears.
In the Command Prompt, type in tasklist /fi “imagename eq “ /FI “CPUList ne 0”. This will give you a list of all processes running on your computer as well as their assigned CPU numbers. To change affinity for a particular process, type in task kill /F /PID /AFFINITY.
For example, if I wanted to move my Chrome browser from CPU 0 to CPU 1, I would type in task kill /F /PID 1234 /AFFINITY 1 . Keep in mind that you need to know the PID (Process ID) of the process that you want to change before you can use this command. You can also use PowerShell to change affinity.
To open PowerShell, type “PowerShell” into the search bar and click on the icon when it appears. In PowerShell, type in Get-Process | where {$_.name -eq “”} | Format-List Id, ProcessorAffinity . This will give you a list of all processes running on your computer as well as their assigned CPU numbers.
To change affinity for a particular process, type in Set-ProcessAffinity -Id -Affinity. For example, if I wanted to move my Chrome browser from CPU 0 to CPU 1 using PowerShell, I would type in Set-ProcessAffinity -Id 1234 -Affinity 1.
How Do I Assign Cores in Windows 10?
If you’re looking to assign cores in Windows 10, there are a few different ways to go about it. Here’s a quick guide on how to do it. One way to assign cores in Windows 10 is through the Task Manager.
To do this, open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc on your keyboard. Then, click on the ‘Details’ tab and find the process you want to assign cores to. Right-click on that process and select ‘Set Affinity.
From here, you can select which cores you want the process to run on. Another way to assign cores in Windows 10 is through Registry Editor. To do this, press Windows+R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box.
Type ‘Regedit’ into the box and hit Enter. This will open Registry Editor. Then, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems and find the entry named “Windows”.
Double-click on it and change the value from “3” to “4”. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer for the changes to take effect. You can also use Command Prompt or PowerShell to assign cores in Windows 10.
To do this, open either Command Prompt or PowerShell (depending on which one you prefer) as an administrator. Then, type the following command: wmic cpu get number of cores /format: list
This will give you a list of all available cores on your system along with their corresponding numbers next to them. Now, all you have to do is choose which core number(s) you want your process(es)to run and enter them into this command: start /affinity [core number(s)] [process name] For example, if I wanted my Chrome browser process (which I’ve determined is called ‘chrome’)to only noncore number 2, I would use this command:
How to Set Affinity Without Task Manager
When it comes to managing your computer’s performance, one of the most important things you can do is adjust its CPU affinity. This is a setting that tells your processor which tasks to prioritize and can be a helpful way to troubleshoot issues or simply improve overall speed. There are two ways to change CPU affinity: through the Task Manager or by using the Command Prompt.
Here’s a look at how to do both: Task Manager:
- Right-click on the task you want to adjust and select “Go To Process.”
- In the “Details” tab, find the “Processes with Affinity Mask” column and click on it so that the tasks are sorted by this metric.
- Select the task you want to change and then click “Set Affinity.”
- A new window will pop up where you can choose which processors you want the task to run on.
Conclusion
If you have more than one monitor connected to your PC, you may have noticed that they’re not always arranged the way you want them to be. Maybe your mouse pointer moves too far to the left and off the screen when you’re trying to click something on the right. Or perhaps a program opens on the wrong monitor when you launch it.
You can fix both of these problems by setting what’s called an “affinity” for each window. This tells Windows which monitor a particular window should open on and where it should be positioned. Here’s how to do it.
