diff --git a/install.bat b/install.bat
index 53b42da..6938401 100644
--- a/install.bat
+++ b/install.bat
@@ -203,6 +203,38 @@ 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')
+"
+
 :: 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"