[gouyt13]

Summary

Windows wheel repair previously picked up msvcp140.dll 14.40 from the runner search path while compiling with MSVC 14.51. Select compatible x64 CRT/OpenMP directories from Visual Studio, prioritize them with delvewheel --add-path, and reject older or missing bundled runtimes after repair. Ensure changes to the repair hook trigger wheel CI.

Keep portable assertions active in ARM-visible tests while retaining AVX-specific checks. Link the allocation-failure test through FastScan or core, avoiding the duplicate core archive reported by Apple's linker. No library algorithm or public API changes.

Testing

• 56 CI automation tests passed, including runtime selection and fail-closed repair checks.
• Both actual prior CPython 3.11/3.14 Windows wheel artifacts are rejected for their older bundled runtime.
• Portable C++ suite: 367 passed; the OpenMP binding test skipped in the default run passed separately. Three affected tests and two forced-generic warmup tests passed.
• Allocation-failure tests passed with FastScan enabled (8) and core-only/OpenMP OFF (4); both generated link commands contain core once.
• C++/Python formatting, Ruff and git diff --check passed. Independent review found no confirmed source defect.

Pending native validation (Q1)

This PR remains a draft until Windows CI validates the actual vswhere -> runtime discovery -> delvewheel repair -> installed-wheel tests path for CPython 3.11 and 3.14. Retain the selected runtime directories and bundled DLL versions in the logs. Positive local policy tests use mocks; rejecting old artifacts alone does not establish that a new Windows wheel builds successfully. Native ARM/macOS checks also remain CI validation.