diff --git a/releases/YTPlayer_1.0.0_x64-setup.exe b/releases/YTPlayer_1.0.0_x64-setup.exe
index 2073903..1246ee0 100644
Binary files a/releases/YTPlayer_1.0.0_x64-setup.exe and b/releases/YTPlayer_1.0.0_x64-setup.exe differ
diff --git a/releases/YTPlayer_1.0.0_x64_en-US.msi b/releases/YTPlayer_1.0.0_x64_en-US.msi
index 404f474..724b8b2 100644
Binary files a/releases/YTPlayer_1.0.0_x64_en-US.msi and b/releases/YTPlayer_1.0.0_x64_en-US.msi differ
diff --git a/releases/ytplayer.exe b/releases/ytplayer.exe
index a122221..d0e1b2c 100644
Binary files a/releases/ytplayer.exe and b/releases/ytplayer.exe differ
diff --git a/src-tauri/src/main.rs b/src-tauri/src/main.rs
index 100e43c..bd1a327 100644
--- a/src-tauri/src/main.rs
+++ b/src-tauri/src/main.rs
@@ -21,7 +21,31 @@ use tauri::Manager;
 
 const SEARCH_LIMIT: u32 = 25;
 
-/// Locate yt-dlp: prefer the bundled resource copy, then a dev ./bin, then PATH.
+// yt-dlp.exe is baked straight into this binary at compile time, so the standalone
+// `ytplayer.exe` is fully self-contained — no sibling file and nothing on PATH
+// required. On first run we materialize it into the app cache dir and run from there.
+// (Windows only; other platforms fall back to a resource/dev/PATH copy.)
+#[cfg(windows)]
+static YTDLP_EMBEDDED: &[u8] = include_bytes!("../../bin/yt-dlp.exe");
+
+/// Write the embedded yt-dlp to the cache dir if it isn't already there (size-checked),
+/// and return its path.
+#[cfg(windows)]
+fn embedded_ytdlp(app: &tauri::AppHandle) -> Option<PathBuf> {
+    let dir = app.path().app_cache_dir().ok()?;
+    std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).ok()?;
+    let dest = dir.join("yt-dlp.exe");
+    let fresh = std::fs::metadata(&dest)
+        .map(|m| m.len() == YTDLP_EMBEDDED.len() as u64)
+        .unwrap_or(false);
+    if !fresh {
+        std::fs::write(&dest, YTDLP_EMBEDDED).ok()?;
+    }
+    Some(dest)
+}
+
+/// Locate yt-dlp: prefer a bundled resource copy, then a dev ./bin, then the
+/// embedded self-contained copy (Windows), then finally PATH.
 fn ytdlp_path(app: &tauri::AppHandle) -> PathBuf {
     let name = if cfg!(windows) { "yt-dlp.exe" } else { "yt-dlp" };
     if let Ok(res) = app.path().resource_dir() {
@@ -34,6 +58,12 @@ fn ytdlp_path(app: &tauri::AppHandle) -> PathBuf {
     if dev.exists() {
         return dev;
     }
+    #[cfg(windows)]
+    {
+        if let Some(p) = embedded_ytdlp(app) {
+            return p;
+        }
+    }
     PathBuf::from(name)
 }
 
diff --git a/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json b/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
index 428ef39..71634ab 100644
--- a/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
+++ b/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
@@ -35,9 +35,6 @@
       "icons/128x128@2x.png",
       "icons/icon.icns",
       "icons/icon.ico"
-    ],
-    "resources": {
-      "../bin/yt-dlp.exe": "bin/yt-dlp.exe"
-    }
+    ]
   }
 }