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Microsoft can recompile the relevant programs when the new DLLs aren't binary compatible, then push those new binaries along with the core update…

Well… they could if only they had aptitude… and a repository for 3rd party's source code. I guess there's no easy way out, then.

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Windows SxS was supposed to ensure that programs would get linked to the latest version of a DLL that the program would be compatible with. There are even conditional forwarders set up for it. You could have a program that would only link against the oldest version, if it needed to.

They were very, very close to a working versioned symbols system.

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