How to Show Process Priority in Ubuntu System Monitor

This article provides a quick guide on configuring the Ubuntu System Monitor to reveal process priority levels. You will learn how to customize the interface to display the nice value column within the main process list for better resource management.

Open System Monitor

Launch the System Monitor application from your application grid or by searching for it in the Activities overview. Alternatively, you can open a terminal and type gnome-system-monitor to start the tool immediately.

Navigate to Processes

Click on the “Processes” tab located at the top of the System Monitor window. This view displays the main list of all currently running applications and background services on your system.

Enable Priority Column

Right-click on any existing column header in the process list, such as “Process Name” or “CPU %”. A dropdown menu will appear showing a list of available columns that can be displayed. Locate the option labeled “Priority” or “Nice” in this menu and click it to place a checkmark next to it.

View Process Priority

The new column will immediately appear in the main list. You can now see the priority value for each process, where lower numbers indicate higher priority. You may click the column header to sort the list by priority if needed.