diff --git a/Gaudi/doc/release.notes b/Gaudi/doc/release.notes
index 061bd662f39045bc35b2a0ef4e596f5ac44284f0..f5a3665b28112f84103d8dc21870f2fdf2dedde4 100644
--- a/Gaudi/doc/release.notes
+++ b/Gaudi/doc/release.notes
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 Package : Gaudi
 Package manager : Marco Clemencic
 
+! 2014-02-10 - Marco Clemencic
+ - Enable the fixed 'applyConfigurableUsers()' if the environment variable
+   GAUDI_FIXED_APPLY_CONF is set.
+
 ! 2014-02-10 - Marco Clemencic
  - Allow switching between old 'applyConfigurableUsers()' (bug #103803) and the
    new one (fixed the bug, but different order of execution).
diff --git a/Gaudi/scripts/gaudirun.py b/Gaudi/scripts/gaudirun.py
index 6deef29b381d38578bc7062d4598d9569d4923c7..a384884e01cb65598141087d6d86ca3bb5aa40a6 100755
--- a/Gaudi/scripts/gaudirun.py
+++ b/Gaudi/scripts/gaudirun.py
@@ -136,7 +136,9 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     parser.add_option("--new-conf-user-apply", action="store_false",
                       dest="old_conf_user_apply",
                       help="use the new (correct) logic when applying "
-                           "ConfigurableUsers (fixed bug #103803)")
+                           "ConfigurableUsers (fixed bug #103803), can be "
+                           "turned on also with the environment variable "
+                           "GAUDI_FIXED_APPLY_CONF")
     parser.add_option("-o", "--output", action = "store", type = "string",
                       help ="dump the configuration to a file. The format of "
                             "the options is determined by the extension of the "
@@ -183,7 +185,8 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
                         profilerExtraOptions = '',
                         preload = [],
                         ncpus = None,
-                        old_conf_user_apply=True)
+                        # the old logic can be turned off with an env variable
+                        old_conf_user_apply='GAUDI_FIXED_APPLY_CONF' not in os.environ)
 
     # replace .qmt files in the command line with their contained args
     argv = []