diff --git a/mercurial/configitems.py b/mercurial/configitems.py
--- a/mercurial/configitems.py
+++ b/mercurial/configitems.py
@@ -923,7 +923,7 @@ coreconfigitem('profiling', 'statformat'
     default='hotpath',
 )
 coreconfigitem('profiling', 'time-track',
-    default='real',
+    default=dynamicdefault,
 )
 coreconfigitem('profiling', 'type',
     default='stat',
diff --git a/mercurial/profiling.py b/mercurial/profiling.py
--- a/mercurial/profiling.py
+++ b/mercurial/profiling.py
@@ -101,7 +101,8 @@ def statprofile(ui, fp):
     else:
         ui.warn(_("invalid sampling frequency '%s' - ignoring\n") % freq)
 
-    track = ui.config('profiling', 'time-track')
+    track = ui.config('profiling', 'time-track',
+                      pycompat.iswindows and 'cpu' or 'real')
     statprof.start(mechanism='thread', track=track)
 
     try: