How do I set up BOINC with the Exclusive Application option?

You can have a cc_config.xml in your BOINC Data directory that will suspend your BOINC (under Windows and available for BOINC 6.4 and above only, I'm afraid) automatically when any of the exclusive applications you told it to look out for is detected in main memory. (*)

To do so, set up the cc_config.xml file with the following entries (this is an example of my cc_config.xml):

<cc_config>
  <options>
    <exclusive_app>Speed.exe</exclusive_app>
    <exclusive_app>Crysis.exe</exclusive_app>
    <exclusive_app>FarCry.exe</exclusive_app>
    <exclusive_app>NFSHP2.exe</exclusive_app>
    <exclusive_app>FarCry2.exe</exclusive_app>
    <exclusive_app>Dirms.exe</exclusive_app>
    <exclusive_app>Spybot.exe</exclusive_app>
  </options>
</cc_config> 

You only need to tell what application name it needs to look out for, no need for the full path to the name. If you already have one, you can add the <options></options> part to your existing cc_config.xml file.

Watch out with launcher files. Some games and other programs launch with a Launcher, which does not stay in memory after you launched the game. So do not use the launcher file as the exclusive app, but the game executable's name instead.

Of course, if you do not want to use the exclusive application option, but still want BOINC to stop during your other work, there are other options:

First and foremost is to exit BOINC before you start gaming or doing your other CPU or GPU intensive thing. BOINC Manager->File->Exit, check "stop running of science applications when exiting BOINC Manager" and click OK. Restarting BOINC Manager will also restart the BOINC service (if you installed it that way).

Second, you can suspend BOINC before you start gaming or your other GPU intensive thing. (*)
BOINC Manager->Advanced view->Activity->Suspend. To resume follow the same path and set it back to Run based on preferences.

Third is to use the Snooze option, but this will only suspend BOINC for 1 hour. Right click on the BOINC Manager icon in the system tray->Snooze.

Fourth is to use the option to only crunch with BOINC when the computer is idle. This is found in the web-preferences as well as the local (advanced) preferences which will override the web-preferences.

Fifth is to use the day-of-the-week-override functions in BOINC Manager->Advanced->Preferences. Set the CPU usage to times that you aren't using the computer.

(*) There is a problem when you have your preferences set to Leave applications in memory while suspended. Any task still in the video card's RAM will stay there until you resume BOINC. Although it will not use your GPU, the amount of memory that, for example a Seti CUDA tasks takes up (200MB+ of the VRAM) may still have impact on your other activities.
BOINC 6.6 will unload the task from video memory when you suspend BOINC and the task has at least checkpointed once.

Original writer	Original FAQ	Date
Jorden	491	29-Jun-2009