diff --git a/setup_zsh.sh b/setup_zsh.sh
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index fc3460b..1f61a11
--- a/setup_zsh.sh
+++ b/setup_zsh.sh
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ root="$HOME/.dotfiles"
 plugins="$root/zsh"
 timestamp=$(date +"%Y%m%d%H%M")
 debug=1
+remove=".dotfiles .dotfiles.old .myzsh .oh-my-zsh .zshrc .zshrc-pre-oh-my-zsh"
 dependencies="awk tee ls git wget curl rm mv sleep date"
 if [ $(uname) == "Darwin" ]; then
   alias sed="gsed"
@@ -81,28 +82,44 @@ cleanup() {
 message d "Warming up installer."
 #message d "Initiating preflight checks."
 
-
-# check dependencies, fail with a list of missing
-
-# can i write to ~ and ~/.oh-my-zsh
+# check dependencies
+missing=""
+for item in $dependencies; do
+  command -v $item > /dev/null
+  if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
+    missing="$missing $item"
+  fi
+done
+if [ -n "$missing" ]; then
+  message e "dependencies missing: $missing"
+  exit 1
+fi
+message i "all dependencies found"
 
 # remove everything in 5 seconds: ~/.dotfiles ~/.dotfiles.old ~/.myzsh ~/.oh-my-zsh ~/.zshrc
 message w "your old configs will be deleted in 5 seconds [terminate deletion with Ctrl-C]"
 sleep 5
-rm -rf $HOME/.dotfiles
-rm -rf $HOME/.dotfiles.old
-rm -rf $HOME/.myzsh
-rm -rf $HOME/.oh-my-zsh
-rm $HOME/.zshrc
-rm $HOME/.zshrc.pre-oh-my-zsh
+for item in $remove; do
+  if [ -d $item ]; then
+    rm -rf $HOME/$item
+    message w "removed folder: ~/$item"
+  elif [ -h $item ]; then
+    rm $HOME/$item
+    message w "removed link: ~/$item"
+  elif [ -f $item ]; then
+    rm $HOME/$item
+    message w "removed file: ~/$item"
+  fi
+done
 
 # invoke oh-my-zh installer
-curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh | bash
-message i "oh-my-zsh installed"
-
-# set $ZSH_THEME="" in .zshrc
-sed -i "s/^ZSH_THEME=\"robbyrussell\"/ZSH_THEME=\"\"/g" $HOME/.zshrc
-message i "oh-my-zsh theme deactivated"
+if [ -w $HOME ]; then
+  curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh | bash
+  message i "oh-my-zsh installed"
+else
+  message e "oh-my-zsh could not be installed. $HOME is not writeable"
+  exit 1
+fi
 
 # clone plugins
 cd $HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/ > /dev/null
@@ -116,11 +133,13 @@ git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions.git zsh-autosuggestio
 cd - > /dev/null
 message i "all plugins cloned"
 
+# set $ZSH_THEME="" in .zshrc
+sed -i "s/^ZSH_THEME=\"robbyrussell\"/ZSH_THEME=\"\"/g" $HOME/.zshrc
 # set $plugins in .zshrc
 plugins="git zsh-autosuggestions autoupdate sysadmin-util zsh-syntax-highlighting zsh-david async pure"
 sed -i "/plugins=(/,/)/d; s/source \$ZSH\/oh-my-zsh.sh/plugins=($plugins);; source \$ZSH\/oh-my-zsh.sh/g" $HOME/.zshrc
 sed -i $'s/;; /\\\n/g' $HOME/.zshrc
-message i "activated zsh plugins [$plugins]"
+message i "tweaked ~/.zshrc"
 
 message d "Installer finished."