I think the original problem we had with the AddDllDirectory approach was that once set, it seems to mitigate searching the os.environ['PATH'] for dll loading. Is that accurate? Would RemoveDllDirectory restore the ability to find DLLs along the system PATH?

> This wouldn't solve the problem of DLL name and version conflicts, however

Right, so far we are discussing the easier problem of adding search paths, not their order. This does become an issue for users who modify their system path in order to overcome the first problem, and end up pulling in the wrong version of a support DLL.