Set an application's resource limits (CPU usage)

Question

It's a little strange I know, but I want to limit a program (for example the winrar app) resource usage.

The reason: I have an old laptop, with overheating problem, so if I want to do a calculate intensive task (compress a >10GB folder), my laptop overheats and turns off.

The question: Is it possible to limit an application's resource/CPU usage? For example, can I set somehow, that winrar can only use my CPU's 50%?

I use windows 8.1, but answer for other OS is welcome.

Answer 1

See Are there solutions that can limit the CPU usage of a process? for general answer.

WinRAR itself has the command line switch -ri, see in help of WinRAR the page with title:

Switch -RI<p>[:<s>] - set priority and sleep time

For example using a command line like

WinRAR.exe a -ri1:100 Backup.rar *

results in compressing all files in current working directory with default settings using lowest task priority and with 100 ms sleep time between each read or write operation.