I see. Thanks for the explanation. I didn't know the complete story of the "Windows DLL search path". BTW, I think a huge difference b/w PYTHONPATH and PATH is the system-wide nature of PATH, vs. the Python-restriced nature of PYTHONPATH.
And more to the point - and the critical distinction - is that PYTHONPATH is actually specific to the Python _app_, not just Python on the machine. Sure - the standard Python installation puts a "default" PYTHONPATH suitable for general purpose development - but any distributed application _can_ define their own PYTHONPATH that is independant of any other Python systems or applications. People have been doing this for years, including MS :-) Sorry Jim, but count this as another vote against it - which isnt to argue that the current system is perfect, simply (IMO) better than the Windows path and DLL search order. Mark.