diff --git a/src/core/util.c b/src/core/util.c
index 73a822ca4..2b04de0e7 100644
--- a/src/core/util.c
+++ b/src/core/util.c
@@ -579,23 +579,6 @@ meta_external_binding_name_for_action (guint keybinding_action)
   return g_strdup_printf ("external-grab-%u", keybinding_action);
 }
 
-static gboolean
-zenity_supports_option (const char *section, const char *option)
-{
-  char *command, *out;
-  gboolean rv;
-
-  command = g_strdup_printf ("zenity %s", section);
-  g_spawn_command_line_sync (command, &out, NULL, NULL, NULL);
-
-  rv = (out && strstr (out, option));
-
-  g_free (command);
-  g_free (out);
-
-  return rv;
-}
-
 /* Command line arguments are passed in the locale encoding; in almost
  * all cases, we'd hope that is UTF-8 and no conversion is necessary.
  * If it's not UTF-8, then it's possible that the message isn't
@@ -684,13 +667,8 @@ meta_show_dialog (const char *type,
 
   if (icon_name)
     {
-      char *option = g_strdup_printf ("--help%s", type + 1);
-      if (zenity_supports_option (option, "--icon-name"))
-        {
-          append_argument (args, "--icon-name");
-          append_argument (args, icon_name);
-        }
-      g_free (option);
+      append_argument (args, "--icon-name");
+      append_argument (args, icon_name);
     }
 
   tmp = columns;
@@ -714,8 +692,7 @@ meta_show_dialog (const char *type,
       setenv ("WINDOWID", env, 1);
       g_free (env);
 
-      if (zenity_supports_option ("--help-general", "--modal"))
-        append_argument (args, "--modal");
+      append_argument (args, "--modal");
     }
 
   g_ptr_array_add (args, NULL); /* NULL-terminate */