diff --git a/java/compiler/impl/src/com/intellij/compiler/server/BuildManager.java b/java/compiler/impl/src/com/intellij/compiler/server/BuildManager.java
index 10fe0921f45e..61a57e3e2483 100644
--- a/java/compiler/impl/src/com/intellij/compiler/server/BuildManager.java
+++ b/java/compiler/impl/src/com/intellij/compiler/server/BuildManager.java
@@ -745,6 +745,7 @@ public class BuildManager implements ApplicationComponent{
     if (IS_UNIT_TEST_MODE) {
       cmdLine.addParameter("-Dtest.mode=true");
     }
+    cmdLine.addParameter("-Djdt.compiler.useSingleThread=true"); // always run eclipse compiler in single-threaded mode
 
     final String shouldGenerateIndex = System.getProperty(GlobalOptions.GENERATE_CLASSPATH_INDEX_OPTION);
     if (shouldGenerateIndex != null) {
diff --git a/platform/platform-resources-en/src/misc/registry.properties b/platform/platform-resources-en/src/misc/registry.properties
index fd1de87fff11..e43adc71260d 100644
--- a/platform/platform-resources-en/src/misc/registry.properties
+++ b/platform/platform-resources-en/src/misc/registry.properties
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ compiler.process.32bit.vm.on.mac=true
 # suppress inspection "UnusedProperty"
 compiler.process.32bit.vm.on.mac.description=Force -d32 VM option on Mac (recommended for faster startup and lower memory footprint).
 
-compiler.process.vm.options=-Xss2048k -Djdt.compiler.useSingleThread=true
+compiler.process.vm.options=-Xss2048k -Dcompile.parallel=false -Dcompile.parallel.max.threads=4
 # suppress inspection "UnusedProperty"
 compiler.process.vm.options.description=Additional options for the build process' VM.