R help - Mar 2006 - possible to impose limit on R's use of resources?

When I run some large optimizations in R under Windows it puts a heavy
load on the CPU, which makes other applications that run at the same
time very slow. Is it possible to instruct R to be less aggressive in
its use of computer resources, so I can use my computer for other
purposes while running R (probably considerably slower) in the
background?

Han de Vries



--------------------

This email message is for the sole use of the intended recip...{{dropped}}

On 3/10/2006 4:42 PM, Vries, Han de wrote:
> When I run some large optimizations in R under Windows it puts a heavy
> load on the CPU, which makes other applications that run at the same
> time very slow. Is it possible to instruct R to be less aggressive in
> its use of computer resources, so I can use my computer for other
> purposes while running R (probably considerably slower) in the
> background?
No, but you should be able to tell Windows to run it at a lower 
priority.  Open the Task Manager, select R among the applications and 
then use the right mouse button to "Go To Process" (or just select it 
among the processes), then use the right mouse button to set priority to 
"below normal" or "low".  I'm not sure what privileges
you need to do
this; it's possible you may need to do it as an admin.

Duncan Murdoch

Thank you. Your suggestion works perfectly.
Han 

-----Original Message-----
From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch at stats.uwo.ca] 
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 2:49 PM
To: Vries, Han de
Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: Re: [R] possible to impose limit on R's use of resources?

On 3/10/2006 4:42 PM, Vries, Han de wrote:
> When I run some large optimizations in R under Windows it puts a heavy
> load on the CPU, which makes other applications that run at the same
> time very slow. Is it possible to instruct R to be less aggressive in
> its use of computer resources, so I can use my computer for other
> purposes while running R (probably considerably slower) in the
> background?
No, but you should be able to tell Windows to run it at a lower 
priority.  Open the Task Manager, select R among the applications and 
then use the right mouse button to "Go To Process" (or just select it 
among the processes), then use the right mouse button to set priority to

"below normal" or "low".  I'm not sure what privileges
you need to do
this; it's possible you may need to do it as an admin.

Duncan Murdoch



--------------------

This email message is for the sole use of the intended recip...{{dropped}}