Error: Access Denied, when trying to change priority of a game in Task Manager

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that you are facing issues with changing the priority of a game in Task Manager. For further clarity on the issue, please respond to the questions below:

1. Which build version of Windows 10 are you using currently?
2. Are you aware of any changes made to the PC prior to which you weren’t facing this issue?
3. Do you receive the same message while changing priority for any other task?

Refer the article Which version of Windows operating system am I running?

Meanwhile, I would suggest you to follow the steps mentioned below and see if that helps.

Method 1:

Try performing Clean Boot on your PC, and see if you are able to change the priority for the task. Refer the article How to perform a clean boot in Windows

Performing a clean boot will start the computer with minimal set of drivers and programs, to determine whether a background program is causing the issue. Some of the Startup programs will not load after performing a clean boot on the computer. However, that functionality will return when you reset the computer to start normally after finishing the troubleshooting.

If you are able to change priority after performing Clean Boot, then please refer the section How to determine what is causing the problem after you do a clean boot to identify the root cause of the issue.

Note: Please refer the section Reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshootingto boot the computer in to normal mode after troubleshooting

Method 2:

Check if the process that you are trying to modify has Full Permissions.

1. Right click on the Taskbar and click on Task Manager.
2. Now right click on the process and select Properties.
3. On the Properties window select the Security tab.
4. Now select the username of your user account and click on Edit.
5. Make sure Full Control box is checked for the user account.

Method 3:

Try changing the User Account Control Settings and see if you are able to change the priority.

1. Now press Windows + S key together to open Search.
2. Type UAC and click on Change User Account Control settings
3. Enter the password for administrator account
4. Toggle the level for UAC accordingly and check if you are able to change the priority

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator