Process Lasso is a great piece of software. As you all know, I use Apophysis a lot and since it is an old bear made for 32 bit it uses a great deal of processing to render images. Process Lasso is fab for reigning it in so I am able to use my system while doing renders. Anyone who has a program that is so intense should give this a try.Probalance works great. This is not a free trial but the full program. 
Process Lasso is NOT yet another task manager; it is a process, power, and CPU optimization and automation utility. One of Process Lasso’s most popular features is a unique technology called ProBalance (Process Balance) that can improve your PC’s responsiveness and stability during high CPU loads. Windows, by design, allows programs to monopolize your CPU without sufficient restraint — leading to hangs and micro-lags. ProBalance intelligently adjusts the priorities of running programs on-demand so that badly behaved processes are less likely to negatively impact the responsiveness of your PC. It does this NOT by raising process priorities, but instead by temporarily lowering the priorities of background processes that may be interfering with PC responsiveness. It can also perform other operations on these processes, such as adjusting their I/O priorities or CPU affinities.
