What are Boot Advanced Options in MSCONFIG in Windows 10?

MSConfig or System configuration utility is a tool built into Windows that allows you to manage boot items, boot options, services, and boot in safe mode, etc. Under the starter section, there is a Advanced options button. This section gives you access to the configuration of options such as the number of processors, the amount of memory, debugging and global debugging parameters. Keep in mind that these options are last resort choices for diagnosing your systems for advanced users. In this article, we will go into details on these advanced boot options in MSCONFIG in Windows 10.

Advanced startup options in MSCONFIG

There is one thing you need to understand clearly. The advanced startup section of the System Configuration Utility or MSCONFIG is designed for troubleshooting. However, confusion occurs when the end user finds this option. We strongly recommend that you keep these settings at their default values ​​and do not modify them.

Number of processors

Open Task Manager and switch to the Performance tab. Take note of the number of processor cores and memory.

Now type MSCONFIG in the Run prompt and press the Enter key. Go to the Boot section and click on the Advanced options button

Check the Number of processors box and select nothing less than the maximum available from the drop-down list. The maximum number you see will be the same as the number you saw in Task Manager.

Restart, then check the number of processors and the amount of memory available to the operating system.

I am sure that you will notice a slower performance compared to what you had when the computer starts in the default configuration. Although I don’t know why these settings are there, but I guess it helps developers understand how their application works under a low hardware configuration without changing the actual hardware configuration. The same can apply to Windows.

Now let’s see the other sections:

PCI Lock

PCI is a hardware bus for adding components to a computer. The BIOS or operating system can determine resource requirements and allocate them automatically, so there is no conflict. Previously, this was useful because Windows supported this.

From what I have seen in the forums, it is best not to control it, unless you are having problems with the connected hardware. Windows can take over, but we don’t go there except that when checked, it results in a BSOD.

If you’ve checked PCI lock and get a BSOD, make sure to boot into safe mode, then disable PCI lock using msconfig. You may need a bootable USB device to access the advanced boot configuration.

Debug

This is a developer option where to debug the kernel, the debugging tools are connected to the operating system. Again, this is an option not intended for consumers and should be left as is. When you check Debug, you can configure the rest of the options, including the debug port, channel, USB target name, and baud rate. When using it, you will need to disable or suspend BitLocker and Secure Boot on the computer.

There is a lot to do using the bcdedit in Windows 10, which also offers / dbgsettings as one of the options. You can use it to deactivate the signature of the driver, activate or deactivate data execution, etc.

You will also see other parameters for Maximum memory, Global debugging settings, etc.

There is one clear thing here. These are not consumer options, and there is no way to use them to speed up computers. These advanced options are debugging tools, and they have been around for as long as I can remember. There are many such tools in Windows, and unless you are in hardware debugging, do not use it.

I hope the message was easy to understand and that you were able to understand why you, as a consumer, should not be using the advanced boot options in MSCONFIG in Windows 10.