diff --git a/dev-packages/application-manager/src/generator/backend-generator.ts b/dev-packages/application-manager/src/generator/backend-generator.ts
index 7020a4eb90d5d..6d9ff269b23a7 100644
--- a/dev-packages/application-manager/src/generator/backend-generator.ts
+++ b/dev-packages/application-manager/src/generator/backend-generator.ts
@@ -33,6 +33,11 @@ if (typeof process.versions.electron === 'undefined' && typeof process.env.THEIA
     process.versions.electron = process.env.THEIA_ELECTRON_VERSION;
 }`)}
 
+// Erase the ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE variable from the environment, else Electron apps started using Theia will pick it up.
+if ('ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE' in process.env) {
+    delete process.env.ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE;
+}
+
 const path = require('path');
 const express = require('express');
 const { Container } = require('inversify');
diff --git a/packages/plugin-dev/src/node/hosted-instance-manager.ts b/packages/plugin-dev/src/node/hosted-instance-manager.ts
index 73d7cd5ad5fd6..2cb40de8fcc2b 100644
--- a/packages/plugin-dev/src/node/hosted-instance-manager.ts
+++ b/packages/plugin-dev/src/node/hosted-instance-manager.ts
@@ -92,7 +92,6 @@ const PROCESS_OPTIONS = {
     cwd: process.cwd(),
     env: { ...process.env }
 };
-delete PROCESS_OPTIONS.env.ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE;
 
 @injectable()
 export abstract class AbstractHostedInstanceManager implements HostedInstanceManager {
diff --git a/packages/plugin-ext/package.json b/packages/plugin-ext/package.json
index b4984352adc3a..4688a3db2c420 100644
--- a/packages/plugin-ext/package.json
+++ b/packages/plugin-ext/package.json
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
     "decompress": "^4.2.1",
     "escape-html": "^1.0.3",
     "filenamify": "^4.1.0",
+    "is-electron": "^2.2.0",
     "jsonc-parser": "^2.2.0",
     "lodash.clonedeep": "^4.5.0",
     "macaddress": "^0.2.9",
diff --git a/packages/plugin-ext/src/plugin/node/debug/plugin-debug-adapter-starter.ts b/packages/plugin-ext/src/plugin/node/debug/plugin-debug-adapter-starter.ts
index 9301b3eff1f34..a96e1151843bc 100644
--- a/packages/plugin-ext/src/plugin/node/debug/plugin-debug-adapter-starter.ts
+++ b/packages/plugin-ext/src/plugin/node/debug/plugin-debug-adapter-starter.ts
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import * as net from 'net';
 import * as theia from '@theia/plugin';
 import { CommunicationProvider } from '@theia/debug/lib/common/debug-model';
 import { ChildProcess, spawn, fork, ForkOptions } from 'child_process';
+import isElectron from 'is-electron';
 
 /**
  * Starts debug adapter process.
@@ -40,10 +41,13 @@ export function startDebugAdapter(executable: theia.DebugAdapterExecutable): Com
     const { command, args } = executable;
     if (command === 'node') {
         if (Array.isArray(args) && args.length > 0) {
-            const isElectron = !!process.env['ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE'];
             const forkOptions: ForkOptions = {
                 env: options.env,
-                execArgv: isElectron ? ['-e', 'delete process.env.ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE;require(process.argv[1])'] : [],
+                // When running in Electron, fork will automatically add ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE=1 to the env,
+                // but this will cause issues when debugging Electron apps, so we'll remove it.
+                execArgv: isElectron()
+                    ? ['-e', 'delete process.env.ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE;require(process.argv[1])']
+                    : [],
                 silent: true
             };
             if (options.cwd) {
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index e2107e12be0a4..7e183cffebc7b 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -5855,7 +5855,7 @@ is-electron-renderer@^2.0.0:
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/is-electron-renderer/-/is-electron-renderer-2.0.1.tgz#a469d056f975697c58c98c6023eb0aa79af895a2"
   integrity sha1-pGnQVvl1aXxYyYxgI+sKp5r4laI=
 
-is-electron@^2.1.0:
+is-electron@^2.1.0, is-electron@^2.2.0:
   version "2.2.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/is-electron/-/is-electron-2.2.0.tgz#8943084f09e8b731b3a7a0298a7b5d56f6b7eef0"
   integrity sha512-SpMppC2XR3YdxSzczXReBjqs2zGscWQpBIKqwXYBFic0ERaxNVgwLCHwOLZeESfdJQjX0RDvrJ1lBXX2ij+G1Q==