Will a task be completed faster if it is the active window?
cpu, performance, process
Solution
On Windows the foreground application gets a priority boost. This is to help it maintain responsiveness to the user and makes sure that when it's ready to run after waiting for some I/O event, it'll get to run next, ahead of most other applications that might be waiting to run.
There is also a potential for a longer quantum for foreground applications.
I don't know how much faster an application would complete if it's run in the foreground instead of the background - there are so many factors that would go into this (particularly I/O). The intent is to make the application more responsive.
This is all configurable to some extent (maybe only on server SKUs):
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259025
Problem
I have heard a myth that a job will finish faster if it is kept as the active window, and not in the background or minimized. Is there any truth to this? Does the CPU put precedence to tasks where this happens? Thanks,