diff --git a/nipap/nipapd b/nipap/nipapd
index d381ea0d6..4dc2b6b59 100755
--- a/nipap/nipapd
+++ b/nipap/nipapd
@@ -329,8 +329,8 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     except:
         pass
 
-    # pre-fork if we are not running in foreground
-    if not cfg.getboolean('nipapd', 'foreground') and num_forks is not False:
+    # pre-fork unless explicitly disabled
+    if num_forks is not False:
         # default is to fork as many processes as there are cores
         tornado.process.fork_processes(num_forks)