diff --git a/src/script/ant.bat b/src/script/ant.bat
index 417cb9d6a..6562bbbcc 100755
--- a/src/script/ant.bat
+++ b/src/script/ant.bat
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ for %%i in ("%ANT_HOME%\lib\*.jar") do call "%ANT_HOME%\bin\lcp.bat" %%i
 
 if "%JAVA_HOME%" == "" goto noJavaHome
 if "%_JAVACMD%" == "" set _JAVACMD=%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java
+if not exist "%_JAVACMD%.exe" echo Error: "%_JAVACMD%.exe" not found - check JAVA_HOME && goto end
 if exist "%JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar" call "%ANT_HOME%\bin\lcp.bat" %JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar
 if exist "%JAVA_HOME%\lib\classes.zip" call "%ANT_HOME%\bin\lcp.bat" %JAVA_HOME%\lib\classes.zip
 goto checkJikes