Learn How to Install and setup Golang in Windows

Learn an easy way to install go language on Windows.

Go Language installation

Go is a modern popular open-source programming language. This language developed by Google. It provides binary versions for Windows, macOS, and Linux officially. If you want to install a different environment, You can get the source code and build it to your platform. Go language provides the following binaries for installation in different environments.

  • Windows
  • Apple macOS
  • Linux
  • Ubuntu

How to install and Setup Go Language on Windows?

First, get the binary installer for windows ie MSIđź”— file from and download it. It downloads the MSI file.

Once the download completes, Install the MSI file and select A:\\Golang location to follow the next steps.

The next step is to configure environment variables.

Configure Environment Variables

Go to My Computers or This PC --> properties --> Advance System Settings --> Environment Variables, Create a System variable or environment variable GO_ROOT

give the value of GO_ROOT to A:\Golang folder

Next, configure GO_ROOT to PATH variable ie set PATH to %PATH%\%GO\_ROOT%\binary

It installs the Go Language successfully.

How to verify if Golang is installed successfully

To check the installation, first Open a command-line shell and give the “go version” command, It gives the go language version correctly.

C:\>go version
go version go1.11.2 windows/amd64

C:\Users\Kiran>go env
set GOARCH=amd64
set GOBIN=
set GOCACHE=C:\Users\Kiran\AppData\Local\go-build
set GOEXE=.exe
set GOFLAGS=
set GOHOSTARCH=amd64
set GOHOSTOS=windows
set GOOS=windows
set GOPATH=C:\Users\Kiran\go
set GOPROXY=
set GORACE=
set GOROOT=A:\Golang
set GOTMPDIR=
set GOTOOLDIR=A:\Golang\pkg\tool\windows_amd64
set GCCGO=gccgo
set CC=gcc
set CXX=g++
set CGO_ENABLED=1
set GOMOD=
set CGO_CFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_CPPFLAGS=
set CGO_CXXFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_FFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-g -O2
set PKG_CONFIG=pkg-config
set GOGCCFLAGS=-m64 -mthreads -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=C:\Users\Kiran\AppData\Local\Temp\go-build682765038=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches

How to create a First sample Program in Golang?

Using any IDE or editor, Write the first program and save this file as “First.go” package main

package main
import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Printf("Hello, World")
}

To compile the First.go file, Use the go build command.

A:\Golang\work>dir
 Volume in drive A is Work
 Volume Serial Number is C682-8F53

 Directory of A:\Golang\work

12-11-2018  14:54    <DIR>          .
12-11-2018  14:54    <DIR>          ..
12-11-2018  14:49                83 First.go
               1 File(s)             83 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  125,885,014,016 bytes free

A:\Golang\work>go build First.go

A:\Golang\work>dir
 Volume in drive A is Work
 Volume Serial Number is C682-8F53

 Directory of A:\Golang\work

12-11-2018  14:54    <DIR>          .
12-11-2018  14:54    <DIR>          ..
12-11-2018  14:54         1,969,152 First.exe
12-11-2018  14:49                83 First.go
               2 File(s)      1,969,235 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  125,883,043,840 bytes free

Execute the First.exefile by the following command.

A:\Golang\work>First.exe
Hello World