diff --git a/src/cli.js b/src/cli.js
index 5624cb93bb5..9e70249ec04 100644
--- a/src/cli.js
+++ b/src/cli.js
@@ -19,5 +19,8 @@ bootstrapNode.configurePortable(product);
 // Enable ASAR support
 bootstrap.enableASARSupport(undefined);
 
+// Signal processes that we got launched as CLI
+process.env['VSCODE_CLI'] = '1';
+
 // Load CLI through AMD loader
 require('./bootstrap-amd').load('vs/code/node/cli');
diff --git a/src/vs/code/node/cli.ts b/src/vs/code/node/cli.ts
index c1285622ed0..7045d47e3b6 100644
--- a/src/vs/code/node/cli.ts
+++ b/src/vs/code/node/cli.ts
@@ -118,7 +118,6 @@ export async function main(argv: string[]): Promise<any> {
 	else {
 		const env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv = {
 			...process.env,
-			'VSCODE_CLI': '1', // this will signal Code that it was spawned from this module
 			'ELECTRON_NO_ATTACH_CONSOLE': '1'
 		};