go-legacy-win7 is a fork of the Go programming language that maintains support for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Server 2008 R2, Server 2012, and Server 2012 R2, and restores the 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.

1. Windows 7/8/8.1 and Legacy Server Support
   While the official Go project dropped support for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Server 2008 R2, Server 2012, and Server 2012 R2 in Go 1.21, this fork maintains compatibility with all these legacy Windows systems.

   Tested on Windows 7 RTM (build 7600) — no updates required — through Windows 11 25H2

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 legacy Windows systems. We try to maintain as much functionality as possible, but some limitations may exist.

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 behaviour 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)
• Added FindFirstFile/FindNextFile fallback for old SMB shares (fixed issue #9)
• Includes all improvements and bug fixes from the corresponding upstream Go release

We now provide two build options for Windows amd64:

• Standard build
  Maximum compatibility with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Server 2008 R2, Server 2012, and Server 2012 R2 with the reverted race detector. Use this if you need legacy Windows 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

Note: The table below shows the latest Go stable version. For previous versions, including other stable releases, visit the Releases page and select the one matching your desired Go version.

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

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.

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

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

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.