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I ask because the last two entries in the context menu sound as if they may be in the wrong order:

  • …
  • Background: 4 (Low I/O and Memory Priority)
  • Idle: 4

If these both have the same numeric base priority, but Background has other lower settings, is it not effectively the lower of the two?

(I checked the Process Explorer help, but found no details of their meaning.)
(What is Windows Priority and Affinity and what advatanges does it provide? refers to an older version of the context menu without these entries.)

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PJTraill
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1 Answers1

4

"Background" has the same process priority as Idle, but also assigns the process low I/O and memory priorities, further reducing its impact on your system.

Above Paraphrased from/More info here

Related article from Microsoft's MSDN about the "SetThreadPriority function":

Begin background processing mode. The system lowers the resource scheduling priorities of the thread so that it can perform background work without significantly affecting activity in the foreground.

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