Ever been happily surfing the web, reading your email, playing a game, or some other fun pastime — and it all came to a crawl?
Your anti-virus program might have started its periodic scan of your hard drive. Or, it might have been your anti-spyware scan, or your automatic file backup utility.
Some programs just do not play nicely with other programs that are running.
In the Linux world, the user has more control — via the command “nice.” The nice command is used to change the priority of a program, so you can run something in a background mode without hampering your other activities.
This week I found that Process Explorer, about which I have written several times, can change the priority of a program that is running. NEAT!
Where would I use this? I might use it for a full-system virus or anti-spyware scan. I would not use it to change the priority of the anti-virus or anti-spyware program’s normal functions, though.
Importantly, this change only affects the program that you select while it’s running now. If the program ends, crashes, you reboot, or anything else that causes it to stop, any new execution of the program would have its normal priority.
Thanks again to Sysinternals(www.sysinternals.com) for this free program.
[Note: Sysinternals has subsequently been purchased by Microsoft and its programs are generally available from Microsoft.]
and