diff --git a/waveshell/pkg/shellapi/zshapi.go b/waveshell/pkg/shellapi/zshapi.go
index 2b4cdf841..ac8000cb9 100644
--- a/waveshell/pkg/shellapi/zshapi.go
+++ b/waveshell/pkg/shellapi/zshapi.go
@@ -257,10 +257,7 @@ func (z zshShellApi) MakeRcFileStr(pk *packet.RunPacketType) string {
 		}
 		rcBuf.WriteString("\n")
 	}
-	if shellenv.FindVarDecl(varDecls, "ZDOTDIR") == nil {
-		rcBuf.WriteString("unset ZDOTDIR\n")
-		rcBuf.WriteString("\n")
-	}
+	// do NOT unset ZDOTDIR, otherwise initialization will start to read initialization files from ~/ again
 	for _, varName := range ZshUnsetVars {
 		rcBuf.WriteString("unset " + shellescape.Quote(varName) + "\n")
 	}