CPU-P

Cpu-P is a tiny utility that allows you to control the CPU usage and Priority of applications on the fly in Windows. It is designed to be small and unobtrusive, but be powerful enough to actually be useful for power users who want to get the most out of their system resources. These capabilities to change the processor affinity and priority are built into the Windows operating system, but their is no easy/quick way to accomplish this so most users never even bother.

The first time you start the application, this help page is loaded and a settings file is created. If for some reason you need to 'reset' the application (reset all settings) you can delete the configuration file - cpu-p.ini. The default location is: %APPDATA%\Zlo7\CPU-P (you can copy and paste that directly into Windows Explorer.) If you installed CPU-P via the zip file, cpu-p.ini may be in the installed directory based on your permissions.

Upon starting CPU-P for the first time, you will be presented with the large GUI which varies depending on your version (1 CPU/Priority Only, 2 CPUs, or 4 CPUs). The controls across all GUIs are the same, however available processors will decrease. Here is the large GUI, annotated with indications of what the controls do:

CPU Checkboxes 1-4 allow you to assign the active window to any individual processor or a combination such as 1 & 2 or 1, 3 & 4.
Priority can be assigned to Low, Below Normal, Normal, Above Normal and High. Realtime is not available via the CPU-P interface.

The unlabeled buttons will change from the various GUIs or close the window. When changing GUIs, the upper right corner is considered the anchor point.

When closing the CPU-P window, the program remains resident and active. To exit the program you must use the tray icon in your taskbar. The tray icon has 3 states. White + Orage: Active, GUI visible. Black + Orange: Active, GUI not visible (Hotkeys available). Black + Blue: Completely Disabled (Reactivate via Tray Menu). Double clicking on the tray icon will toggle the GUI on and off.

Hotkeys:

You have the ability to define a number of hotkeys via the tray menu, however the three most important which are enabled by default are:

CTRL-ALT-1 - Cycle the current window's processor from the current to the next (ie: 1 to 2) or if at the last processor cycle to "All" processors (ie: 4 to All)
CTRL-ALT-2 - Cycle the current window's priority.
CTRL-ALT-3 - Briefly display the current window's status.