Python DLL in Windows Folder

[Chris Mellon]

On Dec 24, 2007 5:23 PM, Ross Ridge <rridge at caffeine.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
> Chris Mellon <arkanes at gmail.com> wrote:
> >What the python installer is doing is the Right Thing for making the
> >standard python dll available to third party applications.
> >Applications that want a specific version of a specific DLL should use
> >the mechanisms available for doing so, instead of relying on there
> >being a specific version of the python dll in the windows folder. This
> >is just general best practice on Windows.
>
> No, it's not best practice for an application install any of its files
> in the Windows system directory.  The system directory is ment only
> for drivers and system files.  Installing application DLLs in the
> system directory is something that should only be done for backwards
> compatiblity.


Python (when installed with "for everyone") is not (just) an
application, it's a runtime. I know that Microsoft has totally dropped
the ball on handling shared libraries and has recently thrown up its
arms and just said that all apps should ship with everything they need
("Don't use shared libraries any more, versioning is hard") but that's
not applicable to Python *the runtime*. system32 is precisely the
correct spot for it, when installed by an administrator, as a system
runtime.

Note that "for me only" Python, doesn't install to there.