When I comment out the Py_SetPath() function call (Line 56), then the code runs up to the 4th test print and then crashes again, possibly at: "Py_XDECREF(pArgs)" else it crashes at Py_Initalize. The same behavior can be observed under Python 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 and on both the MSVC and GCC compiler.
BTW: The multiply.py runs fine when called with "py -3" directly.

>>Output without Py_SetPath:
C:\Development\xxx\Testo1\Snakes\Release>Snakes.exe multiply multiply 3 2
Number of arguments 5
Will compute 3 times 2
Result:  6
***Test1***Test2***Test3Will compute 3 times 2
***Test4

>>Output with Py_SetPath:
C:\Development\xxx\Testo1\Snakes\Release>Snakes.exe multiply multiply 3 2
Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: unable to load the file system codec
ImportError: No module named 'encodings'


**Dev-Environment:
Windows 8.1 64bit, MSVC-2013 and MingW (installed with mingw-w64-install.exe downloaded in June 2014).

**Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2013: v12.0.30501.00 Update2

**GCC/G++ Version:
C:\Development\xxx\Testo1\Snakes\Release>g++ -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=g++
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=C:/MingW64/bin/../libexec/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/4.9.0/lto-wrapper.exe
Target: x86_64-w64-mingw32
Configured with: ../../../src/gcc-4.9.0/configure --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --build=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --targe
t=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/mingw64 --with-sysroot=/c/mingw490/x86_64-490-win32-seh-rt_v3-rev1/mingw64 --wi
th-gxx-include-dir=/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/c++ --enable-shared --enable-static --disable-multilib
--enable-languages=ada,c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++,lto --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-threads=win32 --ena
ble-libgomp --enable-libatomic --enable-lto --enable-graphite --enable-checking=release --enable-fully-dynamic
-string --enable-version-specific-runtime-libs --disable-isl-version-check --disable-cloog-version-check --dis
able-libstdcxx-pch --disable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-bootstrap --disable-rpath --disable-win32-registry --dis
able-nls --disable-werror --disable-symvers --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --with-arch=nocona --with-tune=core2 -
-with-libiconv --with-system-zlib --with-gmp=/c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_64-w64-mingw32-static --with-mpfr=/
c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_64-w64-mingw32-static --with-mpc=/c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_64-w64-mingw32-sta
tic --with-isl=/c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_64-w64-mingw32-static --with-cloog=/c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_
64-w64-mingw32-static --enable-cloog-backend=isl --with-pkgversion='x86_64-win32-seh-rev1, Built by MinGW-W64
project' --with-bugurl=http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64 CFLAGS='-O2 -pipe -I/c/mingw490/x86_64-490-wi
n32-seh-rt_v3-rev1/mingw64/opt/include -I/c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_64-zlib-static/include -I/c/mingw490/pr
erequisites/x86_64-w64-mingw32-static/include' CXXFLAGS='-O2 -pipe -I/c/mingw490/x86_64-490-win32-seh-rt_v3-re
v1/mingw64/opt/include -I/c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_64-zlib-static/include -I/c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_
64-w64-mingw32-static/include' CPPFLAGS= LDFLAGS='-pipe -L/c/mingw490/x86_64-490-win32-seh-rt_v3-rev1/mingw64/
opt/lib -L/c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_64-zlib-static/lib -L/c/mingw490/prerequisites/x86_64-w64-mingw32-stat
ic/lib'
Thread model: win32
gcc version 4.9.0 (x86_64-win32-seh-rev1, Built by MinGW-W64 project)

Crash Error Window (pic)

I zipped the whole Lib directory into "pyLib34.zip" (into same dir as EXE) and copied all the .pyd files from the DLLs dir into the same dir as the EXE.

When working with the separately installed version of Python 3.4.1, which means by not using Py_SetPath() the embedding examples from your webpage work okay. So what's wrong with that function and why that allegedly missing module "encoding" that I cannot find anywhere but is obviously not missing when using the code without Py_SetPath()? Very confusing...

3.4 is long out of maintenance, please create a new issue if you are seeing this problem on a current version (>= 3.9).

You are more likely to receive a response if you include a precise and complete description of the problem. For example, instead of saying "The example on your website", put a link to this example.   I'm not sure what the "multiply.py" script you mention is.   The less detective work a core dev needs to do just to understand the issue, the more likely they are to want to look into it.