Given that both pywin32 *and* py2exe have hit this, even if it can't be resolved for 3.5.0, it would be highly desirable to address it for 3.5.1. It's certainly intended that load_module() keep working as it has previously, rather than forcing people to switch to exec_module() in order to support extensions modules properly on Windows. Aside from general backwards compatibility expectations, there are still some things that load_module() can do that the new PEP 451/489 mechanisms can't handle yet.