The Go Programming Language

go-legacy-win7 is a fork of the Go programming language that maintains support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and allows for deprecated go get behaviour. This project aims to provide a stable Go environment for users who need to support legacy Windows systems or prefer the traditional Go workflow.

Gopher image by Renee French, licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution licence.

Differences from Upstream Go

1. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Support
   While the official Go project has dropped support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, this fork maintains compatibility with these legacy Windows systems.

   Tested on Windows 7 RTM (build 7600) — no updates required — through Windows 11 24H2

2. Classic go get Behaviour
   This fork allows for the deprecated go get behaviour when GO111MODULE is set to "off" or "auto". This means:

   • In GOPATH/src, go get and go install can operate in GOPATH mode.
   • Outside of GOPATH/src, these commands can use module-aware mode when appropriate.

3. Compatibility Notes
   Please be aware that some newer Go features may not be fully compatible with Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. We try to maintain as much functionality as possible, but some limitations may exist.

Changes in Each Release

Current release includes the following modifications:

• Switched back to RtlGenRandom from ProcessPrng, which breaks Win7/2008R2 (reverted 693def1)
• Added back LoadLibraryA fallback to load system libraries (reverted a17d959)
• Added back sysSocket fallback for socket syscalls (reverted 7c1157f)
• Added back Windows 7 console handle workaround (reverted 48042aa)
• Added back 5ms sleep on Windows 7/8 in (*Process).Wait (reverted f0894a0)
• Restored deprecated go get behavior for use outside modules (reverted de4d503)
• Reverted to the previous removeall_noat variant for Windows (fixed issue #2)
• Rolled back race_windows.syso to the previous compatible version (fixed issue #3)
• Includes all improvements and bug fixes from the corresponding upstream Go release

We now provide two build options for Windows amd64:

• Standard build
  Maximum Windows 7/2008R2 compatibility with the reverted race detector. Use this if you need Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 support.

• Race detector build (version suffix -race)
  Uses Go's latest stable race detector without modifications. Recommended for Windows 10+ when running race tests to avoid potential edge cases with the legacy race detector. See issue #6

Download and Install

Binary Distributions

OS	Architecture	Filename	SHA‑256 Hash
macOS	Intel (amd64)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1.darwin_amd64.tar.gz	5b986a094fa2fd9ccf1b8fcad0dfe562eac717c0bcbb5a39fe67851b451d7350
macOS	Apple (ARM64)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1.darwin_arm64.tar.gz	68d73204059f87690421f1cdfb1e7f084c9dc02bf61ded3d513b3720cb07293b
Linux	x86 (386)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1.linux_386.tar.gz	d953801804985b4c4f51eaae3aa275a36844710ed32d3a97492b0b409cdd2e49
Linux	x64 (amd64)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1.linux_amd64.tar.gz	a8b4a8476264be4ca4bedd7937248e6202f0903b4bf62593d30239022710bed9
Linux	ARM (32‑bit)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1.linux_arm.tar.gz	a4f56f7af73ae6ac53730cb59c60c5cd8a538a3174e50cdde85e201a2716ed9f
Linux	ARM64	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1.linux_arm64.tar.gz	bcb523e9feea546394b153102e03c6fef903b41ad61f2e995bd58fcc0bdc5701
Windows	x86 (386)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1.windows_386.zip	e71659dfea7e3c14b773f81d62804210a7eb1b97ffce1317daae745ea5cfe7d2
Windows	x64 (amd64)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1.windows_amd64.zip	ad88eea574495424cbbc461ee24cd7f1977dded1786bf28fba72d6d908f03a3a
Windows	x64 (amd64) - Race	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1-race.windows_amd64.zip	791a100d6496366cacab3ccd2e790673a1ceec3b638cd847e739dfbdedc91b85
Windows	ARM64	go-legacy-win7-1.25.4-1.windows_arm64.zip	803829126819b3983b7b07ff7873fb80cbb579fb4785677c942f309053fe4a5f

Before you begin

To avoid PATH/GOROOT conflicts and mixed toolchains, uninstall any existing Go installation first.

Windows Installation

1. Download the go-legacy-win7-<version>.windows_<arch>.zip file.
2. Extract the ZIP to C:\ (or any preferred location). This will create a go-legacy-win7 folder.
3. Add the following to your system environment variables:
   • Add C:\go-legacy-win7\bin (or your chosen path) to the system PATH.
   • Set GOROOT to C:\go-legacy-win7 (or your chosen path).
4. Add the following to your user environment variables:
   • Add %USERPROFILE%\go\bin to the user PATH.
   • Set GOPATH to %USERPROFILE%\go.

macOS and Linux Installation

1. Download the appropriate go-legacy-win7-<version>.<os>_<arch>.tar.gz file.

   • For macOS: go-legacy-win7-<version>.darwin_<arch>.tar.gz
   • For Linux: go-legacy-win7-<version>.linux_<arch>.tar.gz

2. Extract the archive to /usr/local:

   sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go-legacy-win7-<version>.<os>_<arch>.tar.gz
   

3. Add the following to your shell configuration file:

   • For bash, add to ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc
   • For zsh, add to ~/.zshrc

   export GOROOT=/usr/local/go-legacy-win7
   export GOPATH=$HOME/go
   export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin:$GOPATH/bin
   

4. Apply the changes:

   • For bash: source ~/.bash_profile or source ~/.bashrc
   • For zsh: source ~/.zshrc

   Note:

   • On macOS Catalina and later, zsh is the default shell.
   • On most Linux distributions, bash is the default shell.

After installation, verify the installation by opening a new terminal and running:

go version

Install From Source

To install from source, please follow the steps on the official website.

Contributing

Feedback and issue reports are welcome, and we encourage you to open pull requests to contribute to the project. We appreciate your help!

Note that the Go project uses the issue tracker for bug reports and proposals only. See https://go.dev/wiki/Questions for a list of places to ask questions about the Go language.