diff --git a/configure/os/CONFIG.linux-x86.win32-x86-mingw b/configure/os/CONFIG.linux-x86.win32-x86-mingw
index bd75f5ebd..655b33f23 100644
--- a/configure/os/CONFIG.linux-x86.win32-x86-mingw
+++ b/configure/os/CONFIG.linux-x86.win32-x86-mingw
@@ -21,4 +21,4 @@ LOADABLE_SHRLIB_LDFLAGS = -shared \
 GNU_LDLIBS_YES =
 
 # Link with system libraries
-OP_SYS_LDLIBS = -lws2_32 -ladvapi32 -luser32 -lkernel32 -lwinmm -ldbghelp
+OP_SYS_LDLIBS = -lpsapi -lws2_32 -ladvapi32 -luser32 -lkernel32 -lwinmm -ldbghelp
diff --git a/configure/os/CONFIG.win32-x86-mingw.win32-x86-mingw b/configure/os/CONFIG.win32-x86-mingw.win32-x86-mingw
index a08f19902..8430011c4 100644
--- a/configure/os/CONFIG.win32-x86-mingw.win32-x86-mingw
+++ b/configure/os/CONFIG.win32-x86-mingw.win32-x86-mingw
@@ -32,4 +32,4 @@ LOADABLE_SHRLIB_LDFLAGS = -shared \
 GNU_LDLIBS_YES =
 
 # Link with system libraries
-OP_SYS_LDLIBS = -lws2_32 -ladvapi32 -luser32 -lkernel32 -lwinmm -ldbghelp
+OP_SYS_LDLIBS = -lpsapi -lws2_32 -ladvapi32 -luser32 -lkernel32 -lwinmm -ldbghelp
diff --git a/modules/libcom/src/osi/os/WIN32/osdFindSymbol.c b/modules/libcom/src/osi/os/WIN32/osdFindSymbol.c
index 6de3c428e..5731c8afe 100644
--- a/modules/libcom/src/osi/os/WIN32/osdFindSymbol.c
+++ b/modules/libcom/src/osi/os/WIN32/osdFindSymbol.c
@@ -5,13 +5,33 @@
 \*************************************************************************/
 /* osi/os/WIN32/osdFindSymbol.c */
 
+/* Avoid need to link against psapi.dll. requires windows 7 or later.
+ * MinGW doesn't provide wrappers until 6.0, so fallback to psapi.dll
+ */
+#ifdef _MSC_VER
+#  define PSAPI_VERSION 2
+#  define epicsEnumProcessModules K32EnumProcessModules
+#else
+#  define epicsEnumProcessModules EnumProcessModules
+#endif
 
 #include <windows.h>
+#include <psapi.h>
 
 #define epicsExportSharedSymbols
+#include "epicsStdio.h"
 #include "epicsFindSymbol.h"
 
-static int epicsLoadErrorCode = 0;
+#ifdef _MSC_VER
+#  define STORE static __declspec( thread )
+#elif __GNUC__
+#  define STORE static __thread
+#else
+#  define STORE static
+#endif
+
+STORE
+DWORD epicsLoadErrorCode = 0;
 
 epicsShareFunc void * epicsLoadLibrary(const char *name)
 {
@@ -19,28 +39,78 @@ epicsShareFunc void * epicsLoadLibrary(const char *name)
 
     epicsLoadErrorCode = 0;
     lib = LoadLibrary(name);
-    if (lib == NULL)
-    {
-        epicsLoadErrorCode = GetLastError();
-    }
+    epicsLoadErrorCode = lib ? 0 : GetLastError();
     return lib;
 }
 
 epicsShareFunc const char *epicsLoadError(void)
 {
-    static char buffer[100];
+    STORE char buffer[100];
+    DWORD n;
 
-    FormatMessage(
-        FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM,
+    n = FormatMessage(
+        FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM|FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS,
         NULL,
         epicsLoadErrorCode,
         0,
         buffer,
         sizeof(buffer)-1, NULL );
+
+    if(n) {
+        /* n - number of chars stored excluding nil.
+         *
+         * Some messages include a trailing newline, which we strip.
+         */
+        for(; n>=1 && (buffer[n-1]=='\n' || buffer[n-1]=='\r'); n--)
+            buffer[n-1] = '\0';
+    } else {
+         epicsSnprintf(buffer, sizeof(buffer),
+                       "Unable to format WIN32 error code %lu",
+                       (unsigned long)epicsLoadErrorCode);
+         buffer[sizeof(buffer)-1] = '\0';
+
+    }
+
     return buffer;
 }
 
 epicsShareFunc void * epicsShareAPI epicsFindSymbol(const char *name)
 {
-    return GetProcAddress(0, name);
+    HANDLE proc = GetCurrentProcess();
+    HMODULE *dlls=NULL;
+    DWORD nalloc=0u, needed=0u;
+    void* ret = NULL;
+
+    /* As a handle returned by LoadLibrary() isn't available to us,
+     * try all loaded modules in arbitrary order.
+     */
+
+    if(!epicsEnumProcessModules(proc, NULL, 0, &needed)) {
+        epicsLoadErrorCode = GetLastError();
+        return ret;
+    }
+
+    if(!(dlls = malloc(nalloc = needed))) {
+        epicsLoadErrorCode = ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY;
+        return ret;
+    }
+
+    if(epicsEnumProcessModules(proc, dlls, nalloc, &needed)) {
+        DWORD i, ndlls;
+
+        /* settle potential races w/o retry by iterating smaller of nalloc or needed */
+        if(nalloc > needed)
+            nalloc = needed;
+
+        for(i=0, ndlls = nalloc/sizeof(*dlls); !ret && i<ndlls; i++) {
+            ret = GetProcAddress(dlls[i], name);
+            if(!ret && GetLastError()!=ERROR_PROC_NOT_FOUND) {
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    epicsLoadErrorCode = ret ? 0 : GetLastError();
+    free(dlls);
+    return ret;
 }
diff --git a/modules/libcom/src/osi/os/posix/osdFindSymbol.c b/modules/libcom/src/osi/os/posix/osdFindSymbol.c
index acfc405e5..084865341 100644
--- a/modules/libcom/src/osi/os/posix/osdFindSymbol.c
+++ b/modules/libcom/src/osi/os/posix/osdFindSymbol.c
@@ -11,6 +11,12 @@
 #define epicsExportSharedSymbols
 #include "epicsFindSymbol.h"
 
+/* non-POSIX extension available on Linux (glibc at least) and OSX.
+ */
+#ifndef RTLD_DEFAULT
+#  define RTLD_DEFAULT 0
+#endif
+
 epicsShareFunc void * epicsLoadLibrary(const char *name)
 {
     return dlopen(name, RTLD_LAZY | RTLD_GLOBAL);
@@ -23,5 +29,5 @@ epicsShareFunc const char *epicsLoadError(void)
 
 epicsShareFunc void * epicsShareAPI epicsFindSymbol(const char *name)
 {
-    return dlsym(0, name);
+    return dlsym(RTLD_DEFAULT, name);
 }
diff --git a/modules/libcom/test/Makefile b/modules/libcom/test/Makefile
index 59b135fda..3ad869afb 100755
--- a/modules/libcom/test/Makefile
+++ b/modules/libcom/test/Makefile
@@ -265,6 +265,16 @@ iocshTest_SRCS += iocshTest.cpp
 TESTS += iocshTest
 TESTFILES += $(wildcard ../iocshTest*.cmd)
 
+TESTPROD_HOST += epicsLoadTest
+epicsLoadTest_SRCS += epicsLoadTest.cpp
+# test linked against static libCom?
+epicsLoadTest_CPPFLAGS_STATIC_YES = -DLINKING_STATIC
+epicsLoadTest_CPPFLAGS += $(epicsLoadTest_CPPFLAGS_STATIC_$(STATIC_BUILD))
+# are dynamic libraries built?
+epicsLoadTest_CPPFLAGS_SHARED_YES = -DBUILDING_SHARED_LIBRARIES
+epicsLoadTest_CPPFLAGS += $(epicsLoadTest_CPPFLAGS_SHARED_$(SHARED_LIBRARIES))
+TESTS += epicsLoadTest
+
 # The testHarness runs all the test programs in a known working order.
 testHarness_SRCS += epicsRunLibComTests.c
 
diff --git a/modules/libcom/test/epicsLoadTest.cpp b/modules/libcom/test/epicsLoadTest.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..77b37f2db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/libcom/test/epicsLoadTest.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+/*************************************************************************\
+* Copyright (c) 2020 Michael Davidsaver
+* EPICS BASE is distributed subject to a Software License Agreement found
+* in file LICENSE that is included with this distribution.
+\*************************************************************************/
+
+#include <sstream>
+
+#include <stdlib.h>
+
+#include "epicsUnitTest.h"
+#include "testMain.h"
+
+#include "envDefs.h"
+#include "epicsFindSymbol.h"
+#include "epicsThread.h"
+
+namespace {
+
+void loadBad()
+{
+    testOk1(!epicsFindSymbol("noSuchFunction"));
+}
+
+// lookup a symbol from libCom
+// which this executable is linked against (maybe statically)
+// Doesn't work for static builds on windows
+void loadCom()
+{
+    testDiag("Lookup symbol from Com");
+
+#if defined (_WIN32) && defined(LINKING_STATIC)
+    testTodoBegin("windows static build");
+#endif
+
+    void* ptr = epicsFindSymbol("epicsThreadGetCPUs");
+    testOk(ptr==(void*)&epicsThreadGetCPUs,
+           "%p == %p (epicsThreadGetCPUs) : %s",
+           ptr, (void*)&epicsThreadGetCPUs,
+           epicsLoadError());
+
+    testTodoEnd();
+}
+
+void loadCA()
+{
+    testDiag("Load and lookup symbol from libca");
+
+    std::string libname;
+    {
+        std::ostringstream strm;
+        // running in eg. modules/libcom/test/O.linux-x86_64-debug
+#ifdef _WIN32
+        strm<<"..\\..\\..\\..\\bin\\"<<envGetConfigParamPtr(&EPICS_BUILD_TARGET_ARCH)<<"\\ca.dll";
+#else
+        strm<<"../../../../lib/"<<envGetConfigParamPtr(&EPICS_BUILD_TARGET_ARCH)<<"/";
+#  ifdef __APPLE__
+        strm<<"libca.dylib";
+#  else
+        strm<<"libca.so";
+#  endif
+#endif
+        libname = strm.str();
+    }
+    testDiag("Loading %s", libname.c_str());
+
+    void *ptr = epicsLoadLibrary(libname.c_str());
+    testOk(!!ptr, "Loaded %p : %s", ptr, epicsLoadError());
+
+    ptr = epicsFindSymbol("dbf_text");
+    testOk(!!ptr, "dbf_text %p : %s", ptr, epicsLoadError());
+}
+
+} // namespace
+
+MAIN(epicsLoadTest)
+{
+    testPlan(4);
+
+    // reference to ensure linkage when linking statically,
+    // and actually use the result to make extra doubly sure that
+    // this call isn't optimized out by eg. an LTO pass.
+    testDiag("# of CPUs %d", epicsThreadGetCPUs());
+
+    loadBad();
+#if defined(__rtems__) || defined(vxWorks)
+    testSkip(3, "Target does not implement epicsFindSymbol()");
+#else
+    loadCom();
+#  if defined(BUILDING_SHARED_LIBRARIES)
+    loadCA();
+#  else
+    testSkip(2, "Shared libraries not built");
+#  endif
+#endif
+    return testDone();
+}