title: How to set processor affinity on an executable in Windows XP?
body: <p>I have a quad core system with third party application that once in a while spins several processes (always the same executable but several instances of it) and takes 100% of CPU time. I also have a couple of web services running on the same box (IIS and third party).</p>
  
  <p>The problem with the all cores being busy is that it makes this third party web server to timeout (IIS works fine though, just slower than usual). I have no control over third party web server, it's a part of the bigger product and has to be operational. So, I tried to play with processor affinity (via SysInternals Process Explorer) and limit those pesky processes to 3 cores out of 4 and dedicate the 4th core to the third party web server, and it seems to work quite well.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is that it only sets affinity on the running process and not on executable level, so after those processes finish and later respawn as a new processes it's all the same again - they take all 4 cores. So, I've googled about this ImageCfg.exe utility from Microsoft but I can't find it on Microsoft webside for download and I see that some people tried it and now complain that it doesn't really work.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to stick the affinity to the executable?</p>