Sit down Modern Warfare!

This is a tool to resolve a long-standing issue that has been plaguing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The game will typically change its’ own process priority to “High” and can cause issues for other applications/drivers/devices, this tool will reset the process priority back to “Normal” when this happens.

This tool is not affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment, Activision Publishing, Infinity Ward, Beenox, Highmoon or Raven.

Get SitdownMW

Direct download

1.0.0.0

• Windows Installer
• Source code

Winget

winget install sitdownmw

Frequently Asked Questions

What does SitdownMW do?

SitdownMW sits as a tiny Windows service (the executable is around 8kilobytes -- A megabyte is 128 times larger) running in the background. It detects if Modern Warfare is running as “High”, then resets it back to “Normal”. It will not interact with the desktop in any way.

How do I install SitdownMW?

The installer is very minimal. Just run the installer, it will request administrative privileges and install a system service without prompting once launched. The utility is exceedingly small and lightweight, so it will install very quickly and launch.

It is packaged using MSI packaging and can be deployed with Active Directory if need be (i.e. for an Internet café or tournament event). It is installed as a Windows service and as such, will run automatically for all users on the computer without any additional configuration.

How do I remove SitdownMW?

You can uninstall SitdownMW by going to your normal program removal control panel and looking for “SitdownMW”.

Why should I use this?

Related questions:

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Why does Streamdeck lag on Modern Warfare?

Why does my computer freeze up with Modern Warfare?

Is it possible to permanently set the CPU priority of MW?

Is there a fix for MW high CPU usage?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sets itself as a high priority process, and in doing so, it takes priority over other software and even some drivers, causing a variety of issues. For some users, this is not a problem; but for those who are having issues, this tool is likely to resolve it.

Why does my computer still stutter briefly when starting Modern Warfare?

SitdownMW itself runs at normal priority to be unobtrusive and only checks periodically, when Modern Warfare starts, it will set itself at some point to “High” priority and it typically is eating a lot CPU at that point in time, blocking other applications (including SitdownMW briefly). This will be caught by SitdownMW and changed shortly, so the issue will not persist.

Is SitdownMW constantly running?

Yes, SitdownMW spends most of its' time idling in the background, checking on the system. The first implementation attempted used the Windows Task Scheduler, but it proved to be slower and more resource intensive to continuously start and stop a process to check.

Is SitdownMW trustworthy?

You should not download random programs off the Internet you have not verified as safe. VirusTotal scans items with over 70 antivirus scanners, this might be a good starting point for assessing trustworthiness.

The official site for SitdownMW is at https://bitbucket.org/AshleyStone/sitdownmw/ -- Consider downloading from the official source rather than some “modified” version that may have backdoors.

The author has not been banned from Modern Warfare for using this tool and the source code is freely available. Much like all software, the author has expressed limitation of liability should anything happen and disclaimer of warranty; please take that into consideration too.

Did you know you can use “Start /NORMAL” in a batch script to start it in normal priority?

Unfortunately, this does not resolve the problem, because the program always starts in normal priority, it eventually will set it self to “High” priority, regardless of what was configured in a batch script.

How do I know if it is working?

One of the easiest methods is just to check if Modern Warfare is actually running as “High” priority through checking it via Task Manager. Generally, the approach is to wait for Modern Warfare to hit the main menu screen before checking, as it does not change its' priority to high immediately up on launch. If you find it set to “High”, check it again after ten seconds and you should find that SitdownMW has dealt with the situation.

For those more familiar with Windows administration tools, the SitdownMW maintains a log in the Windows Event Log, which can be accessed through the Event Viewer. A separate log exists for SitdownMW called “Sit down Modern Warfare” under the “Applications and Services Logs”. This log contains information whenever the monitoring is started or stopped as well to when the service has had to tell Modern Warfare to sit down.

I run Windows on an alternative architecture (i.e. ARM), will this work for me?

Yes, both the installer and service will run natively and work, even though CoD MW will run under emulation.

What is required to compile SitdownMW?

This is not to run, this is strictly to compile the solution:

• Visual Studio 2019 with Git support, C# .NET framework and C# .NET Core support.
• WiX v3 with the WiX Toolset Visual Studio 2019 Extension.

I have a question not answered here, what do I do?

Use the issue tracker, your answer might be found there. Alternatively, you can also use it to ask your question.

The legal bits

Can't you see this is a land of confusion?

Disclaimer of Warranty.

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

Limitation of Liability.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.