Xbox-style Quick Resume for Windows - instantly pause & resume apps or games with 0% CPU/GPU usage while paused.
In windows, when you minimize or pause any apps or games, they still consume CPU and GPU unnecessarily in the background. This causes reduced performance for other applications.
SnapNap is a small Windows utility that lets you pause and resume the currently active application instantly using a simple hotkey(Alt+Shift+A).
Instead of closing an application, SnapNap temporarily pauses it so it stops using CPU resources while keeping everything exactly as it is.
Press the hotkey again and the application continues running instantly like nothing happened.
(For developers, check out developer-notes.md in docs folder for detailed notes).
Pause:
Resume:
- Pause the active application instantly
- Resume the application with the same hotkey
- Works from anywhere in Windows
- System tray controls
- Avoids important Windows system processes
- Starts automatically when you log in
- Lightweight and fast
Never close your session
Pause a game or heavy application and return later exactly where you left off.
Saves battery and power
Paused apps consume 0% CPU/GPU, preventing unnecessary power usage.
Multitask efficiently
Free system resources instantly without closing large applications.
- Windows 10 or Windows 11
- Administrator permission (needed to pause applications)
- Download the latest version from:
https://github.com/HarinManiK/SnapNap/releases/tag/v1.0
- Run:
SnapNap.exe
That's it. SnapNap will start automatically the next time you log in.
(Some antivirus software may flag SnapNap because it suspends processes. If this happens, add SnapNap to your antivirus exclusion list.).
- Open or focus the application you want to pause.
Examples:
- A game
- A browser
- Any program doing heavy work
- Press:
Alt + Shift + A
The application will be:
- minimized
- temporarily paused
- consumes 0% CPU and GPU
- To resume the application:
Press Alt + Shift + A again.
The application will restore and continue running like nothing happened.
Caution:
If you pause an online game or an application that is connected to a server (for example, downloading a file), the server may disconnect you after some time.
When the application resumes, it may behave the same way it does when your internet connection drops.
Examples:
- Online games may show a connection lost message and ask you to reconnect(still good, instead of re-opening the game and waiting for the loading screens).
- Downloads may pause or restart.
For situations like watching YouTube in Google Chrome, this usually works fine.
SnapNap runs quietly in the Windows system tray.
Available options:
Resume Resumes the paused application.
Exit Closes SnapNap (this option is disabled while an application is paused).
SnapNap avoids pausing important Windows processes such as:
- explorer.exe
- dwm.exe
- winlogon.exe
- csrss.exe
- svchost.exe
This helps keep Windows running normally.
SnapNap saves logs here:
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\SnapNap\suspend_manager.log
Logs can help identify problems if something does not work as expected.
To remove SnapNap, download and run:
SnapNapUninstaller.exe
SnapNap is distributed under the SnapNap Personal Use License (SPUL-1.0).
Personal use is permitted. Commercial use requires a separate license.
See the LICENSE file for full details.