DllMain and the Loader Lock — The Real Reason You're Told to "Do Nothing in DLL Initialization" (archived 2026-08-30)

Abstract

Why you must not call LoadLibrary or synchronize with other threads from DllMain. Drawing on primary sources, this article explains how the loader lock serializes every DLL notification, the classic scenarios in which a deadlock is structurally guaranteed, the correct design of deferring initialization, and how to investigate a hang. Archived version of https://comcomponent.com/en/blog/dllmain-loader-lock/, as published on 2026-08-30. The live article is maintained and may change after this date. First published 2026-08-22.