diff --git a/tools/chatgui/CMakeLists.txt b/tools/chatgui/CMakeLists.txt
index fb814fe8..819925c0 100644
--- a/tools/chatgui/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tools/chatgui/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -85,16 +85,15 @@ target_compile_definitions(chatgui PRIVATE SQLITE_THREADSAFE=1 USE_SQLITE)
 set_source_files_properties(db/sqlite3.c transport/chat_core.c transport/chat_sync.c transport/db_sync_stub.c PROPERTIES LANGUAGE C)
 if(WIN32)
     target_link_libraries(chatgui PRIVATE ${QT_LIBS} rlottie::rlottie ZLIB::ZLIB OpenSSL::Crypto ZXing::ZXing utun pthread)
-    if(Qt6_FOUND)
-        find_program(WINDEPLOYQT windeployqt6 HINTS ${Qt6_DIR}/../../../bin)
-    else()
-        find_program(WINDEPLOYQT windeployqt HINTS ${Qt5_DIR}/../../../bin)
-    endif()
+    find_program(WINDEPLOYQT windeployqt)
+    message(STATUS "windeployqt found: ${WINDEPLOYQT}")
     if(WINDEPLOYQT)
         add_custom_command(TARGET chatgui POST_BUILD
-            COMMAND ${WINDEPLOYQT} --no-translations $<TARGET_FILE:chatgui>
-            COMMENT "Deploying Qt DLLs alongside executable..."
+            COMMAND ${WINDEPLOYQT} --no-translations --no-compiler-runtime $<TARGET_FILE:chatgui>
+            COMMENT "Deploying Qt DLLs to build directory..."
         )
+    else()
+        message(WARNING "windeployqt not found in PATH — Qt DLLs will NOT be deployed!")
     endif()
 else()
     target_link_libraries(chatgui PRIVATE ${QT_LIBS} rlottie::rlottie ZLIB::ZLIB OpenSSL::Crypto ZXing::ZXing utun pthread dl)