diff --git a/ext/zlib/tests/bug44168.phpt b/ext/zlib/tests/bug44168.phpt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..2438caafb809a
Binary files /dev/null and b/ext/zlib/tests/bug44168.phpt differ
diff --git a/ext/zlib/zlib.c b/ext/zlib/zlib.c
index 1a202e344ed43..7cb4ff54812a1 100644
--- a/ext/zlib/zlib.c
+++ b/ext/zlib/zlib.c
@@ -205,10 +205,14 @@ static int php_zlib_output_handler(void **handler_context, php_output_context *o
 		if (SUCCESS == php_output_handler_hook(PHP_OUTPUT_HANDLER_HOOK_GET_FLAGS, &flags TSRMLS_CC)) {
 			/* only run this once */
 			if (!(flags & PHP_OUTPUT_HANDLER_STARTED)) {
+				sapi_header_line cl_header = {ZEND_STRL("Content-Length"), 0};
+
 				if (SG(headers_sent) || !ZLIBG(output_compression)) {
 					deflateEnd(&ctx->Z);
 					return FAILURE;
 				}
+
+				sapi_header_op(SAPI_HEADER_DELETE, &cl_header);
 				switch (ZLIBG(compression_coding)) {
 					case PHP_ZLIB_ENCODING_GZIP:
 						sapi_add_header_ex(ZEND_STRL("Content-Encoding: gzip"), 1, 1 TSRMLS_CC);
diff --git a/main/SAPI.c b/main/SAPI.c
index dcb2da629a03b..c737f5ec7cd6e 100644
--- a/main/SAPI.c
+++ b/main/SAPI.c
@@ -804,14 +804,6 @@ SAPI_API int sapi_header_op(sapi_header_op_enum op, void *arg TSRMLS_DC)
 				}
 				efree(mimetype);
 				SG(sapi_headers).send_default_content_type = 0;
-			} else if (!STRCASECMP(header_line, "Content-Length")) {
-				/* Script is setting Content-length. The script cannot reasonably
-				 * know the size of the message body after compression, so it's best
-				 * do disable compression altogether. This contributes to making scripts
-				 * portable between setups that have and don't have zlib compression
-				 * enabled globally. See req #44164 */
-				zend_alter_ini_entry("zlib.output_compression", sizeof("zlib.output_compression"),
-					"0", sizeof("0") - 1, PHP_INI_USER, PHP_INI_STAGE_RUNTIME);
 			} else if (!STRCASECMP(header_line, "Location")) {
 				if ((SG(sapi_headers).http_response_code < 300 ||
 					SG(sapi_headers).http_response_code > 307) &&