diff --git a/src/bin/rustup-init.rs b/src/bin/rustup-init.rs
index 6055d6ea02..d540efa367 100644
--- a/src/bin/rustup-init.rs
+++ b/src/bin/rustup-init.rs
@@ -36,20 +36,25 @@ use rustup::is_proxyable_tools;
 use rustup::process::Process;
 use rustup::utils;
 
-#[tokio::main]
-async fn main() -> Result<ExitCode> {
+fn main() -> Result<ExitCode> {
     #[cfg(windows)]
     pre_rustup_main_init();
 
     let process = Process::os();
-    let result = {
+    let runtime = tokio::runtime::Builder::new_multi_thread()
+        .enable_all()
+        .worker_threads(process.io_thread_count()?)
+        .build()
+        .unwrap();
+
+    let result = runtime.block_on(async {
         #[cfg(feature = "otel")]
         let _telemetry_guard = log::set_global_telemetry();
         tracing_log::LogTracer::init()?;
         let (subscriber, console_filter) = log::tracing_subscriber(&process);
         tracing::subscriber::set_global_default(subscriber)?;
         run_rustup(&process, console_filter).await
-    };
+    });
 
     match result {
         Err(e) => {
diff --git a/src/diskio/mod.rs b/src/diskio/mod.rs
index e0e02a79aa..a03bef1cf7 100644
--- a/src/diskio/mod.rs
+++ b/src/diskio/mod.rs
@@ -63,10 +63,9 @@ use std::sync::mpsc::Receiver;
 use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
 use std::{fmt::Debug, fs::OpenOptions};
 
-use anyhow::{Context, Result};
+use anyhow::Result;
 
 use crate::process::Process;
-use crate::utils;
 use crate::utils::notifications::Notification;
 use threaded::PoolReference;
 
@@ -447,15 +446,9 @@ pub(crate) fn get_executor<'a>(
     notify_handler: Option<&'a dyn Fn(Notification<'_>)>,
     ram_budget: usize,
     process: &Process,
-) -> Result<Box<dyn Executor + 'a>> {
+) -> anyhow::Result<Box<dyn Executor + 'a>> {
     // If this gets lots of use, consider exposing via the config file.
-    let thread_count = match process.var("RUSTUP_IO_THREADS") {
-        Err(_) => utils::io_thread_count(),
-        Ok(n) => n
-            .parse::<usize>()
-            .context("invalid value in RUSTUP_IO_THREADS. Must be a natural number")?,
-    };
-    Ok(match thread_count {
+    Ok(match process.io_thread_count()? {
         0 | 1 => Box::new(immediate::ImmediateUnpacker::new()),
         n => Box::new(threaded::Threaded::new(notify_handler, n, ram_budget)),
     })
diff --git a/src/install.rs b/src/install.rs
index 9b37d25a53..a7e48a6c4a 100644
--- a/src/install.rs
+++ b/src/install.rs
@@ -38,11 +38,11 @@ pub(crate) enum InstallMethod<'a> {
 impl InstallMethod<'_> {
     // Install a toolchain
     #[tracing::instrument(level = "trace", err(level = "trace"), skip_all)]
-    pub(crate) async fn install(&self) -> Result<UpdateStatus> {
+    pub(crate) async fn install(&self) -> anyhow::Result<UpdateStatus> {
         // Initialize rayon for use by the remove_dir_all crate limiting the number of threads.
         // This will error if rayon is already initialized but it's fine to ignore that.
         let _ = rayon::ThreadPoolBuilder::new()
-            .num_threads(utils::io_thread_count())
+            .num_threads(self.cfg().process.io_thread_count()?)
             .build_global();
         let nh = &self.cfg().notify_handler;
         match self {
diff --git a/src/process.rs b/src/process.rs
index 2b8074bd16..9f4370a48c 100644
--- a/src/process.rs
+++ b/src/process.rs
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-use std::env;
 use std::ffi::OsString;
 use std::fmt::Debug;
 use std::io;
 use std::io::IsTerminal;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
+use std::str::FromStr;
 #[cfg(feature = "test")]
 use std::{
     collections::HashMap,
@@ -11,8 +11,9 @@ use std::{
     path::Path,
     sync::{Arc, Mutex},
 };
+use std::{env, thread};
 
-use anyhow::{Context, Result};
+use anyhow::{Context, Result, bail};
 #[cfg(feature = "test")]
 use tracing::subscriber::DefaultGuard;
 #[cfg(feature = "test")]
@@ -64,6 +65,26 @@ impl Process {
         home::env::rustup_home_with_env(self).context("failed to determine rustup home dir")
     }
 
+    pub fn io_thread_count(&self) -> anyhow::Result<usize> {
+        if let Ok(n) = self.var("RUSTUP_IO_THREADS") {
+            let threads = usize::from_str(&n).context(
+                "invalid value in RUSTUP_IO_THREADS -- must be a natural number greater than zero",
+            )?;
+            match threads {
+                0 => bail!("RUSTUP_IO_THREADS must be a natural number greater than zero"),
+                _ => return Ok(threads),
+            }
+        };
+
+        Ok(match thread::available_parallelism() {
+            // Don't spawn more than 8 I/O threads unless the user tells us to.
+            // Feel free to increase this value if it improves performance.
+            Ok(threads) => Ord::min(threads.get(), 8),
+            // Unknown for target platform or no permission to query.
+            Err(_) => 1,
+        })
+    }
+
     pub fn var(&self, key: &str) -> Result<String, env::VarError> {
         match self {
             Process::OsProcess(_) => env::var(key),
diff --git a/src/utils/mod.rs b/src/utils/mod.rs
index d1973706a8..b88c5ee49b 100644
--- a/src/utils/mod.rs
+++ b/src/utils/mod.rs
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ use std::io::{self, BufReader, Write};
 use std::ops::{BitAnd, BitAndAssign};
 use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
 use std::process::ExitStatus;
-use std::thread;
 
 use anyhow::{Context, Result, anyhow, bail};
 use retry::delay::{Fibonacci, jitter};
@@ -27,16 +26,6 @@ pub(crate) mod notify;
 pub mod raw;
 pub(crate) mod units;
 
-pub fn io_thread_count() -> usize {
-    // Don't spawn more than this many I/O threads unless the user tells us to.
-    // Feel free to increase this value if it improves performance.
-    const DEFAULT_IO_THREAD_LIMIT: usize = 8;
-
-    thread::available_parallelism()
-        .map_or(1, |p| p.get())
-        .min(DEFAULT_IO_THREAD_LIMIT)
-}
-
 #[must_use]
 #[derive(Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
 pub struct ExitCode(pub i32);