Is there a way to restrict CPU core affinity across application sessions (Windows)?

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I'm often bothered by how much CPU time Chrome in Windows 10 and its tabs occupy. Obviously, closing the browser altogether is a solution, and setting the per-instance affinity will also work, but both of these options are sub-optimal, for their own reasons.

Closing the browser is sub-optimal because then I can't keep using the browser. Just because a task uses a lot of resources doesn't mean I want to end it, I just want to mitigate the impact on other tasks.

Setting the per-instance affinity is sub-optimal for two reasons. Firstly, it's difficult to tell which instance of "chrome.exe" (similar for other processes) is related to which tab. Secondly, it requires setting the affinity any time I open a new tab, or any time I start the browser. Possible, but cumbersome.

The ideal solution would be something that automatically sets the affinity for a given process to a pre-determined value, anytime that process starts.

It seems like it might be valuable to always prevent Chrome (or any other application, for that matter) from using a particular thread (so that that thread is always available for other processes).

Is such a thing even possible?

I'm looking for a solution specifically for Windows 10, but in the interest of making these answers as useful as possible, can we describe this possibility (or lack thereof) in all of the major operating systems?

mHurley

Posted 2019-11-13T23:31:44.127

Reputation: 163

Why are these options sub optimal, and what would the right solution for you look like? – music2myear – 2019-11-14T04:33:31.390

No answers