Speed up Obsidian on Windows by setting process priority to 'High' w/ PowerShell

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Continuing from this thread/post:

An alternative way would be to start Obsidian not via the desktop shortcut but by running a script.

Open a text editor and press New, then copy these lines in there:

# Start Obsidian
Start-Process -FilePath "C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Local\Obsidian\Obsidian.exe"

# Wait for x seconds to have all processes kick in
Start-Sleep -Seconds 60

# Get all running Obsidian processes
$obsidianProcesses = Get-Process -Name "Obsidian"

# Set higher priority for all Obsidian processes
foreach ($process in $obsidianProcesses) {
    $process.PriorityClass = [System.Diagnostics.ProcessPriorityClass]::High
}

# Notify user that Obsidian is running with high priority
Write-Host "Obsidian is running with high priority."

# Wait user input before exiting script
Read-Host "Press Enter to exit..."
  • Change <yourusername> to the name you are logged on with.
  • You can change 60 to a higher number or lower but this should be okay for all.

What the script does is automate the process of setting each Obsidian process priority to “High”.

Save the script with any name, with ps1 extension, e.g. StartObsidian.ps1 and put the file on the desktop.

By default, Windows restricts the execution of PowerShell scripts for security reasons.
Open PowerShell as an administrator and run the following:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Also, by default, Windows might not associate .ps1 files with PowerShell. To ensure double-clicking the script will start Obsidian, you might need to associate .ps1 files with PowerShell. You can do this:

  • Right-click on the .ps1 file.
  • Select “Open with” and then “Choose another app.”
  • Choose “Windows PowerShell” from the list of apps or browse for it.
  • Check the box saying “Always use this app to open .ps1 files.”

With that done, you can double-click the script icon and enjoy. You may want to remove the Obsidian shortcut you were using previously to open the program.

Note: if you click to close the script window, your Obsidian session will also terminate so keep the script window open.

A similar script could be written for Linux as well.

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