diff --git a/playground/Directory.Build.targets b/playground/Directory.Build.targets
index 209c7dabea..994e9b855d 100644
--- a/playground/Directory.Build.targets
+++ b/playground/Directory.Build.targets
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
   <!-- Import only when in-repo. For the out-of-repo case a parent Directory.Build.targets does the import -->
   <Import Project="$(TestsSharedRepoTestingDir)Aspire.RepoTesting.targets" Condition="'$(RepoRoot)' != ''" />
 
-  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(TestsRunningOutsideOfRepo)' == 'true' or '$(SkipDashboardProjectReference)' == 'true'">
+  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(SkipDashboardProjectReference)' == 'true'">
     <DefineConstants>SKIP_DASHBOARD_REFERENCE;$(DefineConstants)</DefineConstants>
   </PropertyGroup>
 </Project>
diff --git a/tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests/AppHostTests.cs b/tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests/AppHostTests.cs
index bce1124fd9..f9af4065e3 100644
--- a/tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests/AppHostTests.cs
+++ b/tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests/AppHostTests.cs
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 using System.Net;
 using System.Text.Json;
 using Aspire.Hosting.ApplicationModel;
-using Aspire.Workload.Tests;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
 using SamplesIntegrationTests;
 using SamplesIntegrationTests.Infrastructure;
@@ -15,12 +14,12 @@ namespace Aspire.Playground.Tests;
 
 public class AppHostTests
 {
-    private readonly TestOutputWrapper _testOutput;
+    private readonly ITestOutputHelper _testOutput;
     private static readonly string? s_appHostNameFilter = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEST_PLAYGROUND_APPHOST_FILTER");
 
     public AppHostTests(ITestOutputHelper testOutput)
     {
-        this._testOutput = new TestOutputWrapper(testOutput);
+        _testOutput = testOutput;
     }
 
     [Theory]
diff --git a/tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests.csproj b/tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests.csproj
index cf91be7bc3..9fab041026 100644
--- a/tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests.csproj
+++ b/tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests/Aspire.Playground.Tests.csproj
@@ -20,9 +20,9 @@
   </PropertyGroup>
 
   <ItemGroup>
+    <!-- on helix, the file will be in the source directory, so it will get
+         picked up by msbuild by default -->
     <Compile Condition="'$(RepoRoot)' != ''" Include="$(RepoRoot)src\Aspire.Hosting\Utils\PasswordGenerator.cs" />
-    <Compile Include="$(TestsSharedDir)WorkloadTesting\TestOutputWrapper.cs" />
-    <Compile Include="$(TestsSharedDir)WorkloadTesting\EnvironmentVariables.cs" />
     <Compile Include="$(TestsSharedDir)Logging\*.cs" />
 
     <AspireProjectOrPackageReference Include="Aspire.Hosting" />