diff --git a/install.bat b/install.bat
index e0d45b8..fdb309a 100644
--- a/install.bat
+++ b/install.bat
@@ -91,6 +91,13 @@ exit /b 1
 :env_created
 echo Botty Python: %PYTHON%
 
+:: Prepend conda DLL dirs to PATH at the process level so the Windows DLL
+:: loader finds tesseract51.dll's transitive deps (leptonica, zlib, etc.)
+:: when ctypes loads it. os.environ['PATH'] set from inside Python is too late.
+for %%F in ("%PYTHON%") do set "_CONDA_ENV=%%~dpF"
+set "_CONDA_ENV=%_CONDA_ENV:~0,-1%"
+set "PATH=%_CONDA_ENV%\Library\bin;%_CONDA_ENV%\Library\mingw-w64\bin;%_CONDA_ENV%\Library\usr\bin;%PATH%"
+
 :: --- Force-reinstall the tesserocr wheel so the correct binary is always used ---
 echo.
 echo Installing tesserocr wheel...
diff --git a/run_botty.bat b/run_botty.bat
index 4e8c8c0..1d867a4 100644
--- a/run_botty.bat
+++ b/run_botty.bat
@@ -5,6 +5,13 @@ cd /d "%BOTTY_DIR%"
 
 call "%BOTTY_DIR%find_python.bat"
 
+:: Prepend conda DLL dirs to PATH at the process level so the Windows DLL
+:: loader finds tesseract51.dll's transitive deps (leptonica, zlib, etc.)
+:: when ctypes loads it. os.environ['PATH'] set from inside Python is too late.
+for %%F in ("%PYTHON%") do set "_CONDA_ENV=%%~dpF"
+set "_CONDA_ENV=%_CONDA_ENV:~0,-1%"
+set "PATH=%_CONDA_ENV%\Library\bin;%_CONDA_ENV%\Library\mingw-w64\bin;%_CONDA_ENV%\Library\usr\bin;%PATH%"
+
 echo Launching Botty ...
 %PYTHON% "%BOTTY_DIR%src\main.py"
 pause