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Setting the Number of Processors in MSConfig Won’t Speed Up Your PC

Why Setting the Number of Processors in MSConfig Won’t Speed Up Your PC

Meta Description: Many online tips claim that setting the number of processors to maximum in MSConfig will speed up your PC. Here’s why that’s a myth—and why you should avoid it.

When your PC feels slow, it’s natural to search online for ways to speed it up. You’ll find plenty of suggestions, ranging from cleaning up startup programs to upgrading your hardware. However, one “tweak” that often appears on forums and YouTube videos—setting the number of processors to the maximum in MSConfig—is not only useless but can actually cause problems.

Let’s break down why this popular Windows “optimization” is a bad idea.

1. Windows Already Uses All Your Processors by Default

The main misconception behind this tip is that Windows somehow limits how many processor cores your system can use. That’s simply not true. By default, Windows automatically uses all available CPU cores for your system’s operations. The “Number of Processors” setting in MSConfig is a troubleshooting option meant for developers or diagnostics—not performance tuning.

Changing this setting doesn’t unlock hidden CPU power. In fact, if you manually select a lower number, you’ll reduce your PC’s performance.

2. Forcing Maximum Processors Can Cause Instability

When you force MSConfig to use the “maximum number of processors,” you remove Windows’ ability to adjust CPU usage dynamically. This flexibility is built in for a reason—it ensures system stability.

If one or more cores become unstable or fail (a rare but possible hardware issue), Windows can compensate by adjusting workload distribution. However, if you’ve locked the number of processors, Windows may continue to request more cores than are available. This can lead to system slowdowns, freezes, or even crashes.

3. It’s a Rarely Useful Change

In theory, there’s little harm in enabling all cores—because most modern systems already do so automatically. But changing the MSConfig setting is, at best, a waste of time, and at worst, a cause of future system instability.

CPU core failures are extremely uncommon; typically, if a processor fails, it fails entirely. So while this tweak might make you feel like you’ve done something to “optimize” your system, the reality is that it doesn’t improve performance at all.

The Bottom Line

If you’re looking to make your Windows PC faster, skip the MSConfig processor tweak. Instead, focus on proven methods like:

  • Disabling unnecessary startup programs
  • Cleaning up temporary files
  • Updating drivers and Windows
  • Upgrading your RAM or switching to an SSD

These steps will make a real difference. Don’t waste your time with myths that do nothing—or worse, risk slowing down your system.

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SSD’s and TRIM

Enabling the TRIM function for your SSD in Windows is essential to optimize drive performance, accelerate data write speeds, and extend the lifespan of your solid-state drive. TRIM works by automatically clearing unused data blocks, preventing a decrease in performance as time passes. It is imperative to maintain fast and efficient operation of your Windows SSD.

Although TRIM should be enabled by Windows automatically it is always a good idea to check.  By opening the command prompt as administrator you can use the following command:

fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

it should return something like this:

C:\Windows\System32>fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify
NTFS DisableDeleteNotify = 0  (Allows TRIM operations to be sent to the storage device)
ReFS DisableDeleteNotify = 0  (Allows TRIM operations to be sent to the storage device)

In this system there are two different types of SSD drives NTFS and ReFS.  They are both 0 which means TRIM is enabled on both drives.  A 1 would mean that TRIM is disabled.

If you see a 1 and want to enable for that drive you would execute one of the two following commands depending what drive type it is:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify NTFS 0
fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify ReFS 0

If you want to disable it just use the same command except use a 1 instead of a 0.

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Disable video auto-play in Firefox

If you do not want all those videos auto-playing in Mozilla Firefox then you can just turn them off.

From a tab in Firefox enter the following:

about:config

Search for the option “media.autoplay.enabled”  the value should be true click on it to change it to false.  You can now close the tab and you are done.

NOTE (10/10/2017): It would appear the the newest revision of FireFox broke this when they added a new value.  You will also need to change.  “media.autoplay.default”  this is by default 0 change it to 1.

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Disable video auto-play in Chrome

If you do not want all those videos auto-playing in Google Chrome then you can just turn them off.

From a tab in Chrome enter the following:

chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy

change the first option to “Document user activation is required.”  then update/restart Chrome.

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Viruses, Trojans and Malware, oh my!

There are a lot of rumors about ransom-ware out there that many of you may not believe.  Something like it won’t happen to me.  Well, it is out there and it can happen, even to you.    There are many ways of distributing ransomware and other threats to your computer that you will not even see until it’s too late.  Ransomware is delivered through Viruses, Trojans, and Malware.  Yes, all of these are delivery methods.  The most common form of delivery is self-inflicted.  

Self-inflicted delivery is not new. You have probably seen it on websites and in your email (mostly as spam).  As an email, it is usually an attachment and can be opened by easily clicking on it.  On web pages, it is in the form of a click-through ad or article which by coincidence is also easily clickable.   When you click on this email or ad or whatever else is lurking out there you are inviting it to install itself and/or activate it.  This, unfortunately, bypasses the base defenses of most all anti-virus programs protecting you from just this sort of thing happening in the first place.

The unfortunate part is that because you load initiate the loading of the program your virus program does not do as thorough a job of checking out its validity.  This often causes the evil/insidious program to be able to install itself when it would normally be blocked.

I have found that the most common delivery is through email.   This is because with the right wording most people will open anything.  Don’t be most people!  Email can be spoofed to make it look like it came from someone or someplace you think you know.  The best rule here is if you are not expecting an attachment from an email you know, don’t open it even if it looks ok.   Treat ALL attachments like they will destroy your computer.  If necessary, email or call the person sending the attachment and ask if it’s legitimate.

With websites, you need to be cautious too.  Don’t click on banners or other ads.  There are more and more every day that is coming up as malicious software installers.   If you are downloading something make sure you download the right object.  A lot of free software sites make it difficult to tell which button is the actual download button.  Try avoiding free stuff as much as possible.  And if you do download something run it through your virus program before you do anything.  This is usually as simple as right-clicking on the file and choosing the virus program from the pop-up menu.

Remember, only YOU can prevent cyber fires.

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Mapping a network drive

There are several different ways to map a network drive in Windows. Each way is, although different, basically the same. They all achieve the same end result and can be used interchangeably.

1. Use Windows Explorer
2. Use command prompt “Net Use”
3. Use Group Policy Editor

In Windows Explorer there are actually two ways of doing this. The easiest is to expand the network and then choose the computer which has the directory you want mapped. Then just left click on the directory and choose map network drive. All that is left after that is to assign the drive letter. The second method is in the Explorer header there is an option to Map Network Drive. This option will open a similar window without a drive mapping already filled in. You can now either browse for the folder or can type it in directly using the UNC of the folder.

If you want to use the command prompt you can use a command “Net Use”. With this command you can map drive letters and printer shares. You just need to know what the share name is.

Ex: net use x: \\mysharedcomputer\sharename

There are more options with net use that you can use to enter login credentials and such you can get a list by typing “net use /?”.

The last option is with group policy manager. This option is great for a server side configuration. There are a lot of things you can do the group policy manager but for now let us concentrate that you can map network drives. The best reason for doing it this way is for multiple people that need to share the same resource. It transcends changing of both computers and people. Setup correctly the only thing you need to do with group policies enabled is to attach the computer to the network and everything else is done for you. You can map network drives, printers, establish login policies, create defaults for internet explorer, assign local privileges, basically almost anything can be tweaked to your desire here and automatically update when the user logs on. All of these things can managed down to granular settings either by user, computer or even operating system. Any one all three or any combination thereof.

On your server based Group Policy Management Editor under “User Configuration” go to “Preferences” / “Windows Settings” then use “Drive Maps”. You can also setup login scripts and use the “net use” command from within these scripts.

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Flash Player

Most people don’t know it but Adobe does have some settings you can change for Flash.  If you like to tinker with settings you can do so here.  There are some security settings that may be useful in keeping tracking or malware away.   Basically you can set rights to sites globally and also white-list some sites that you like (and trust).

It is done through a web page at: Flash Player Control Panel

The setting pages looks like a graphic but it actually works. As always be careful when changing any settings.

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