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

The Windows binary provided here also supports Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Download and Install

Binary Distributions

OS	Architecture	Filename	SHA‑256 Hash
macOS	Intel (amd64)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.2-1.darwin_amd64.tar.gz	6ea2959ee45e512a4439d7224309b9fa660a7e0f175ebb6608c5ce5105a9bad9
macOS	Apple (ARM64)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.2-1.darwin_arm64.tar.gz	b0fd514b8f8bc8caa680b3dc609f905211b022f725717cfb11f93daf6fe9a3ac
Linux	x86 (386)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.2-1.linux_386.tar.gz	4411c1adad34da39ac294d358254cc740878674b89f46dcd3ec27493bb551405
Linux	x64 (amd64)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.2-1.linux_amd64.tar.gz	e8bfa8a317078ec80f86ecc41c74eafe4434bf1552af0bf087b69b56463f4e97
Linux	ARM (32‑bit)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.2-1.linux_arm.tar.gz	c061e450a5371001ba08f5e7adcc9e08b487ef119289bc128d91974691618537
Linux	ARM64	go-legacy-win7-1.25.2-1.linux_arm64.tar.gz	164b47979ba8463daa0882156fa2930754b27adfd04de91d3cc3323120a9ff71
Windows	x86 (386)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.2-1.windows_386.zip	a3327af3d1148fd11099ed07b3f4a55fb7cda0ce9102e0c4ee60124f3657991c
Windows	x64 (amd64)	go-legacy-win7-1.25.2-1.windows_amd64.zip	eb64f8d878b0758c2e9d97d4e84a87373bec764178e8f07dfce62b6fe8f78221
Windows	ARM64	go-legacy-win7-1.25.2-1.windows_arm64.zip	329f30155f6d5e83532176a470e25aed3174bf0a1247fe027e4a53e8c8854e81

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.