diff --git a/conda/base/context.py b/conda/base/context.py
index 34a5e6495..ac017f48b 100644
--- a/conda/base/context.py
+++ b/conda/base/context.py
@@ -826,7 +826,7 @@ class Context(Configuration):
 
     @property
     def conda_prefix(self) -> PathType:
-        return abspath(sys.prefix)
+        return expand("~/.conda")
 
     @property
     @deprecated(
@@ -858,25 +858,17 @@ class Context(Configuration):
         The vars can refer to each other if necessary since the dict is ordered.
         None means unset it.
         """
-        if context.dev:
-            return {
-                "CONDA_EXE": sys.executable,
-                # do not confuse with os.path.join, we are joining paths with ; or : delimiters
-                "PYTHONPATH": os.pathsep.join(
-                    (CONDA_SOURCE_ROOT, os.environ.get("PYTHONPATH", ""))
-                ),
-                "_CE_M": "-m",
-                "_CE_CONDA": "conda",
-                "CONDA_PYTHON_EXE": sys.executable,
-            }
-        else:
-            exe = "conda.exe" if on_win else "conda"
-            return {
-                "CONDA_EXE": os.path.join(sys.prefix, BIN_DIRECTORY, exe),
-                "_CE_M": None,
-                "_CE_CONDA": None,
-                "CONDA_PYTHON_EXE": sys.executable,
-            }
+        import sys
+        return {
+            "CONDA_EXE": sys.executable,
+            # do not confuse with os.path.join, we are joining paths with ; or : delimiters
+            "PYTHONPATH": os.pathsep.join(
+                [CONDA_SOURCE_ROOT, os.environ.get("PYTHONPATH", "")] + [path for path in sys.path if "site-packages" in path]
+            ),
+            "_CE_M": "-m",
+            "_CE_CONDA": "conda",
+            "CONDA_PYTHON_EXE": sys.executable,
+        }
 
     @memoizedproperty
     def channel_alias(self) -> Channel: