diff --git a/src/browser/atom-application.coffee b/src/browser/atom-application.coffee
index c4d472e83..2e534e7c8 100644
--- a/src/browser/atom-application.coffee
+++ b/src/browser/atom-application.coffee
@@ -497,6 +497,13 @@ class AtomApplication
     if resourcePath isnt @resourcePath and not fs.existsSync(resourcePath)
       resourcePath = @resourcePath
 
+    timeout = Number.parseFloat(timeout)
+    unless Number.isNaN(timeout)
+      timeoutHandler = ->
+        console.log "The test suite has timed out because it has been running for more than #{timeout} minutes."
+        process.exit(124) # Use the same exit code as the UNIX timeout util.
+      setTimeout(timeoutHandler, timeout * 60 * 1000)
+
     try
       windowInitializationScript = require.resolve(path.resolve(@devResourcePath, 'src', 'initialize-test-window'))
     catch error
@@ -516,7 +523,7 @@ class AtomApplication
     isSpec = true
     devMode = true
     safeMode ?= false
-    new AtomWindow({windowInitializationScript, resourcePath, headless, isSpec, devMode, testRunnerPath, legacyTestRunnerPath, testPaths, logFile, safeMode, timeout})
+    new AtomWindow({windowInitializationScript, resourcePath, headless, isSpec, devMode, testRunnerPath, legacyTestRunnerPath, testPaths, logFile, safeMode})
 
   resolveTestRunnerPath: (testPath) ->
     FindParentDir ?= require 'find-parent-dir'
diff --git a/src/browser/atom-window.coffee b/src/browser/atom-window.coffee
index 7823388dd..39350392d 100644
--- a/src/browser/atom-window.coffee
+++ b/src/browser/atom-window.coffee
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ class AtomWindow
   isSpec: null
 
   constructor: (settings={}) ->
-    {@resourcePath, pathToOpen, locationsToOpen, @isSpec, @headless, @safeMode, @devMode, timeout} = settings
+    {@resourcePath, pathToOpen, locationsToOpen, @isSpec, @headless, @safeMode, @devMode} = settings
     locationsToOpen ?= [{pathToOpen}] if pathToOpen
     locationsToOpen ?= []
 
diff --git a/src/initialize-test-window.coffee b/src/initialize-test-window.coffee
index 89ef44e4f..405d6901a 100644
--- a/src/initialize-test-window.coffee
+++ b/src/initialize-test-window.coffee
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ try
   path = require 'path'
   ipc = require 'ipc'
   remote = require 'remote'
-  app = remote.require('app')
   {getWindowLoadSettings} = require './window-load-settings-helpers'
   AtomEnvironment = require '../src/atom-environment'
 
@@ -33,11 +32,6 @@ try
 
   document.title = "Spec Suite"
 
-  if timeout = getWindowLoadSettings().timeout
-    ChildProcess = remote.require("child_process")
-    timeoutCop = ChildProcess.fork(require.resolve('./timeout-cop'), [remote.process.pid, timeout])
-    app.on "will-exit", -> timeoutCop.kill()
-
   legacyTestRunner = require(getWindowLoadSettings().legacyTestRunnerPath)
   testRunner = require(getWindowLoadSettings().testRunnerPath)
   testRunner({
@@ -50,7 +44,7 @@ try
 catch error
   if getWindowLoadSettings().headless
     console.error(error.stack ? error)
-    app.emit('will-exit')
+    remote.require('app').emit('will-exit')
     remote.process.exit(status)
   else
     throw error
diff --git a/src/timeout-cop.js b/src/timeout-cop.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 228a011bb..000000000
--- a/src/timeout-cop.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-'use strict'
-
-let parentProcessId = process.argv[2]
-let timeoutInMinutes = process.argv[3]
-let timeoutInMilliseconds = timeoutInMinutes * 1000 * 60
-
-function exitTestRunner () {
-  process.kill(parentProcessId, 'SIGINT')
-  let errorMessage = 'The test suite has timed out because it has been running'
-  errorMessage += ' for more than ' + timeoutInMinutes + ' minutes.'
-  console.log(errorMessage)
-}
-
-setTimeout(exitTestRunner, timeoutInMilliseconds)