--- a/testing/mochitest/browser-test.js
+++ b/testing/mochitest/browser-test.js
@@ -101,21 +101,21 @@ function testInit() {
     var listener = 'data:,function doLoad(e) { var data=e.detail&&e.detail.data;removeEventListener("contentEvent", function (e) { doLoad(e); }, false, true);sendAsyncMessage("chromeEvent", {"data":data}); };addEventListener("contentEvent", function (e) { doLoad(e); }, false, true);';
     messageManager.loadFrameScript(listener, true);
     messageManager.addMessageListener("chromeEvent", messageHandler);
   }
   if (gConfig.e10s) {
     e10s_init();
 
     let processCount = prefs.getIntPref("dom.ipc.processCount", 1);
-    if (processCount > 1) {
-      // Currently starting a content process is slow, to aviod timeouts, let's
-      // keep alive content processes.
-      prefs.setIntPref("dom.ipc.keepProcessesAlive", processCount);
-    }
+    // Currently starting a content process is slow. To avoid
+    // timeouts, let's keep alive content processes. We do this even
+    // when the process count is 1 to make e10s and e10s-multi
+    // behavior similar during testing.
+    prefs.setIntPref("dom.ipc.keepProcessesAlive", processCount);
 
     let globalMM = Cc["@mozilla.org/globalmessagemanager;1"]
                      .getService(Ci.nsIMessageListenerManager);
     globalMM.loadFrameScript("chrome://mochikit/content/shutdown-leaks-collector.js", true);
   } else {
     // In non-e10s, only run the ShutdownLeaksCollector in the parent process.
     Components.utils.import("chrome://mochikit/content/ShutdownLeaksCollector.jsm");
   }