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On linux, we have LIBRARY_PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables in order for programs to search for libraries. Do we have similar thing on windows? Particularly Windows 7?
Also, I would like to know best practices for DLL use (where to put them, use envs or not, etc.), since I want to work on windows like everyone does, and not to sloth myself on workarounds :)
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If the DLL is listed in the Windows registry in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\KnownDLLs key, Windows searches for the DLL in the following locations in order: The %SystemRoot%\SYSTEM32 directory. The .exe file directory. The current directory.
Safe DLL search mode places the user's current directory later in the search order. Safe DLL search mode is enabled by default. To disable this feature, create the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SafeDllSearchMode registry value and set it to 0.
Location of the *. dll File: The dynamic link library file must be placed either in the same folder as the project executable, or preferably in a directory pointed to by a PATH variable. For example, create a directory called C:\temp\my_dlls and place your *. dll files within it.
Edit: As explained by Bob, this answer describes the Alternate Search Order, which is not what most applications would see. The full rules are quite complex. I don't think I can summarize them here. Instead, read the Microsoft docs - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/dlls/dynamic-link-library-search-order
My original answer was:
This MSDN article explains the default search order. I quote:
In (1), if you statically linked against the DLL's stub library, I think "the directory specified by lpFileName" is the process's exe's path.
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