diff --git a/install.bat b/install.bat
index 944d89a..a0d17e1 100644
--- a/install.bat
+++ b/install.bat
@@ -186,6 +186,13 @@ if not exist "C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe" (
         echo WARNING: winget tesseract install failed. pytesseract may not work.
     )
 )
+if exist "C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe" (
+    echo Tesseract OCR found: C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe
+) else (
+    echo WARNING: Tesseract OCR not found after install attempt.
+    echo   pytesseract gem-count OCR will not work until Tesseract is installed.
+    echo   Download manually from: https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/releases
+)
 
 :: Ensure tesseract.dll exists (conda may name it tesseract41.dll)
 if not exist "%BOTTY_ENV_DIR%\Library\bin\tesseract.dll" (
@@ -218,37 +225,16 @@ if exist "dependencies\tesserocr-2.5.2-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl" (
     exit /b 1
 )
 
-:: Patch pytesseract to handle tesseract --version crashes (access violation on some systems)
-echo Patching pytesseract...
-"%PYTHON%" -c "
-import os
-f = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__import__('pathlib').Path(__import__('site').getsitepackages()[0]).parent, 'pytesseract', 'pytesseract.py')
-for p in __import__('site').getsitepackages():
-    fp = os.path.join(p, 'pytesseract', 'pytesseract.py')
-    if os.path.exists(fp):
-        f = fp
-        break
-if os.path.exists(f):
-    with open(f, 'r') as fh:
-        content = fh.read()
-    if 'subprocess.CalledProcessError' not in content:
-        old = '''    except OSError:
-        raise TesseractNotFoundError()'''
-        new = '''    except OSError:
-        raise TesseractNotFoundError()
-    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
-        import warnings
-        warnings.warn('tesseract --version failed, skipping version check')
-        return None'''
-        content = content.replace(old, new)
-        with open(f, 'w') as fh:
-            fh.write(content)
-        print('  pytesseract patched')
-    else:
-        print('  pytesseract already patched')
-else:
-    print('  pytesseract not found')
-"
+:: Verify pytesseract can locate and call the winget tesseract binary.
+:: ocr.py reads PYTESSERACT_TESSERACT_CMD at import time (Bug 14 fix), so no
+:: source-patching is needed — we just confirm the chain works end-to-end here.
+echo.
+echo Verifying pytesseract OCR...
+"%CONDA_EXE%" run -n botty python -c "import pytesseract, os; cmd=r'C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe'; pytesseract.pytesseract.tesseract_cmd=cmd; v=pytesseract.get_tesseract_version(); print('  pytesseract OK: tesseract ' + str(v))" 2>nul
+if %errorlevel% neq 0 (
+    echo   WARNING: pytesseract could not call tesseract. Gem-count OCR will not work.
+    echo   Ensure C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe exists ^(run as admin^).
+)
 
 :: Set PATH for tesseract DLL before testing
 set "TESS_PATH=%BOTTY_ENV_DIR%\Library\bin;%BOTTY_ENV_DIR%\Library\lib;%BOTTY_ENV_DIR%\DLLs;%BOTTY_ENV_DIR%\Scripts"
@@ -257,7 +243,7 @@ set "TESS_PATH=%BOTTY_ENV_DIR%\Library\bin;%BOTTY_ENV_DIR%\Library\lib;%BOTTY_EN
 echo.
 echo Verifying all dependencies...
 set "ALL_OK=1"
-for %%M in (cv2 mss numpy tesserocr discord transitions rapidfuzz) do (
+for %%M in (cv2 mss numpy tesserocr pytesseract discord transitions rapidfuzz) do (
     set "PATH=%TESS_PATH%;%PATH%"
     "%CONDA_EXE%" run -n botty python -c "import %%M" >nul 2>&1
     if %errorlevel% neq 0 (