To run a Go program you need a ‘Go compiler’ and a text editor. You can also use an integrated development environment like Visual Studio Code.

Where to download?

Go download

You can download Go from https://golang.org/dl/. The link has Go binaries for all the major operating systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Notepad ++ download

You can download Notepad ++ from https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/

Install Go on Windows

In the previous step, we downloaded the Go setup. In this step, we will look at how to install it.

Double click on the .msi file.

 

Click Next.

Accept terms and click Next.

The default directory is C:\Go\ but you can change the directory and click Next.

Click Install. In some cases, it asks for permission to install, allow it.

Click Finish to complete the setup.

Installation of Go is done.

Verify the installation

You can verify the installation using the go version command.

Open the command prompt and type ‘go version’.

If you don’t get the above output then check the PATH variable in Environment Variables in Windows.

Once you point the GOPATH variable correctly to .exe in Windows, then you are good to run go programs.

In this post, we saw how to install go on windows and how to set path variables. In the next section, we will see the building blocks of the go program.