diff --git a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/ghostscript.py b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/ghostscript.py
index ec9017ca..0986641d 100644
--- a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/ghostscript.py
+++ b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/ghostscript.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ COLOR_CONVERSION_STRATEGIES = frozenset(
     ]
 )
 # Ghostscript executable - gswin32c is not supported
-GS = 'gswin64c' if os.name == 'nt' else 'gs'
+GS = '@gs@'
 
 
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
diff --git a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/jbig2enc.py b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/jbig2enc.py
index 736de67e..d8c24ebd 100644
--- a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/jbig2enc.py
+++ b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/jbig2enc.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ from ocrmypdf.subprocess import get_version, run
 
 def version() -> Version:
     try:
-        version = get_version('jbig2', regex=r'jbig2enc (\d+(\.\d+)*).*')
+        version = get_version('@jbig2@', regex=r'jbig2enc (\d+(\.\d+)*).*')
     except CalledProcessError as e:
         # TeX Live for Windows provides an incompatible jbig2.EXE which may
         # be on the PATH.
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ def available():
 
 
 def convert_single(cwd, infile, outfile, threshold):
-    args = ['jbig2', '--pdf', '-t', str(threshold), infile]
+    args = ['@jbig2@', '--pdf', '-t', str(threshold), infile]
     with open(outfile, 'wb') as fstdout:
         proc = run(args, cwd=cwd, stdout=fstdout, stderr=PIPE)
     proc.check_returncode()
diff --git a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/pngquant.py b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/pngquant.py
index 5b8600d0..fcad771b 100644
--- a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/pngquant.py
+++ b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/pngquant.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ from ocrmypdf.subprocess import get_version, run
 
 
 def version() -> Version:
-    return Version(get_version('pngquant', regex=r'(\d+(\.\d+)*).*'))
+    return Version(get_version('@pngquant@', regex=r'(\d+(\.\d+)*).*'))
 
 
 def available():
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ def quantize(input_file: Path, output_file: Path, quality_min: int, quality_max:
     """
     with open(input_file, 'rb') as input_stream:
         args = [
-            'pngquant',
+            '@pngquant@',
             '--force',
             '--skip-if-larger',
             '--quality',
diff --git a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/tesseract.py b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/tesseract.py
index d41a0af7..b189b0de 100644
--- a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/tesseract.py
+++ b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/tesseract.py
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ class TesseractVersion(Version):
 
 
 def version() -> Version:
-    return TesseractVersion(get_version('tesseract', regex=r'tesseract\s(.+)'))
+    return TesseractVersion(get_version('@tesseract@', regex=r'tesseract\s(.+)'))
 
 
 def has_thresholding() -> bool:
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ def get_languages() -> set[str]:
         msg += output
         return msg
 
-    args_tess = ['tesseract', '--list-langs']
+    args_tess = ['@tesseract@', '--list-langs']
     try:
         proc = run(
             args_tess,
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ def get_languages() -> set[str]:
 
 
 def tess_base_args(langs: list[str], engine_mode: int | None) -> list[str]:
-    args = ['tesseract']
+    args = ['@tesseract@']
     if langs:
         args.extend(['-l', '+'.join(langs)])
     if engine_mode is not None:
diff --git a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/unpaper.py b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/unpaper.py
index 065fc9ef..4fab9313 100644
--- a/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/unpaper.py
+++ b/src/ocrmypdf/_exec/unpaper.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ class UnpaperImageTooLargeError(Exception):
 
 
 def version() -> Version:
-    return Version(get_version('unpaper', regex=r'(?m).*?(\d+(\.\d+)(\.\d+)?)'))
+    return Version(get_version('@unpaper@', regex=r'(?m).*?(\d+(\.\d+)(\.\d+)?)'))
 
 
 @contextmanager
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ def _setup_unpaper_io(input_file: Path) -> Iterator[tuple[Path, Path, Path]]:
 def run_unpaper(
     input_file: Path, output_file: Path, *, dpi: DecFloat, mode_args: list[str]
 ) -> None:
-    args_unpaper = ['unpaper', '-v', '--dpi', str(round(dpi, 6))] + mode_args
+    args_unpaper = ['@unpaper@', '-v', '--dpi', str(round(dpi, 6))] + mode_args
 
     with _setup_unpaper_io(input_file) as (input_png, output_pnm, tmpdir):
         # To prevent any shenanigans from accepting arbitrary parameters in