ImageMagick Imagick installation on xampp Win 10

[fknuefer]

Hi,
I've just installed xampp 7.4.9 on windows 10 and everything is working as it should. There are howver problems in getting ImageMagick with its php sidekick Imagick to run (even though I managed the process a couple of years ago). Below further details regarding my setup.

- ImageMagick 7.0.10-1 Q16 x64 2020-03-18 was installed succesfully and is running.
- PHP Version 7.4.9, compiled with VC17, Thread safety enabled, architecture x64
Windows path shows the way to Imagick and I registered the path to xampp/apache/bin (which probably is not necessary anyway)

...as far as I know, php_imagick.dll and the imagick binaries have to be 'in tune' with the php installation with regard to thread safety, architecture and compiler.
Alas I can only find an imagick package compiled with VC15. I tried this one and it didn't work, even though phpinfo listed it with all its capabilities after I inserted files in the apropriate places and edited php.ini. A dcm website package (Omeka classic ...yes it runs on windows xampp) confirms the ImageMagick path to be valid but does not produce any thumbnails (well, it does with GD). Am I correct in thinking, that the VC15 compilation of imagick is causing the trouble?

Unfortunately there does not seem to be (on least on the https://pecl.php.net/package/imagick/3.4.4/windows site) a version of imagick compiled with VC17 (if that is even the issue...). Well, I am at a point, where I do not know how to continue. Any ideas, anyone?

Many thanks in advance!

Fred

... yes, you have guessed correctly, I am not an expert in setting up servers, more like a reasonably fearless amateur.