If you call LoadLibrary
without a path (e.g., LoadLibrary(\"whatever.dll\")
, Windows will generally follow its standard search algorithm, the same
From Microsoft:
Applications can control the location from which a DLL is loaded by specifying a full path, using DLL redirection, or by using a manifest. If none of these methods are used, the system searches for the DLL at load time as described in this topic.
So yes, if a manifest is present, it will directly go to the SxS folder.