diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e376175a7d61..55e8f4b4a9ef 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Changed
 
+* Changed `compas._os.prepare_environment` to prepend environment paths (fixes problem with RPC on windows).
+
 ### Removed
 
 
diff --git a/src/compas/_os.py b/src/compas/_os.py
index b10aa5078487..af8a34e8a450 100644
--- a/src/compas/_os.py
+++ b/src/compas/_os.py
@@ -221,13 +221,13 @@ def prepare_environment(env=None):
         env = os.environ.copy()
 
     if PYTHON_DIRECTORY:
-        lib_bin = os.path.join(PYTHON_DIRECTORY, 'Library', 'bin')
-        if os.path.exists(lib_bin) and lib_bin not in env['PATH']:
-            env['PATH'] += os.pathsep + lib_bin
+        if is_windows():
+            lib_bin = os.path.join(PYTHON_DIRECTORY, 'Library', 'bin')
+        else:
+            lib_bin = os.path.join(PYTHON_DIRECTORY, 'bin')
 
-        lib_bin = os.path.join(PYTHON_DIRECTORY, 'lib')
         if os.path.exists(lib_bin) and lib_bin not in env['PATH']:
-            env['PATH'] += os.pathsep + lib_bin
+            env['PATH'] = lib_bin + os.pathsep + env['PATH']
 
     if CONDA_EXE:
         env['CONDA_EXE'] = CONDA_EXE