Overview
What is GLEW?
GLEW : Handy and accessible C/C++ library that can be used by developers to easily initialize extensions and create portable applications
In depth
A closer look at GLEW
Developers who use C or C++ programming languages might require a way of determining the functionality of the OpenGL extensions. GLEW was created in order to provide precisely such capabilities and it will allow users to determine which OpenGL extensions are supported on the target platform.This library will display the OpenGL core’s functionality in a single header file, this way allowing people to view the required information quickly. Supporting OpenGL 4.5, the library will allow one to load the preferred extension and it is forward compatible with the OpenGL, WGL and GLX extensions.One of the main features bundled with the library is the “glewinfo” component, which can be used in order to determine if the capabilities of an OpenGL implementation are valid. After running the corresponding command, users will be able to visualize a text file report containing detailed information about the status of the GL versions.To initialize the library, people must first create a valid OpenGL rendering context, which needs to be named “glewInit()” and in case everything is correct, the “GLEW_OK” string will be returned. In order to check for extensions which are available on their platforms, people can query globally defined variables with the form: GLEW_{extension_name}.The library will obtain the information regarding the supported extensions by accessing the graphics card driver. However, users must be warned that experimental or pre-release drivers might not report all the available extensions through the standard mechanism. In such cases, GLEW will report them as unsupported.
Requirements
System requirements
Windows 10 64 bit / Windows 10 / Windows 8 64 bit / Windows 8 / Windows 7 64 bit / Windows 7 / Windows Vista 64 bit / Windows Vista / Windows XP 64 bit / Windows XP
Verdict
Should you download GLEW?
GLEW runs on
Windows 10/11
and is available under the
MIT License
license
— the installer is 2.3 MB.
We’ve catalogued it under
General.
✓
Verified clean. Every GLEW build on SoftLookup is scanned for viruses, spyware, adware, trojans and backdoors. We re-test on every update.
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At a glance
GLEW specifications
- Last updated
- May 1, 2026
- Requirements
- Windows 10 64 bit / Windows 10 / Windows 8 64 bit / Windows 8 / Windows 7 64 bit / Windows 7 / Windows Vista 64 bit / Windows Vista / Windows XP 64 bit / Windows XP
- License
- MIT License
- Operating system
- Windows 10/11
- File size
- 2.3 MB
- Price
- Free
- Page views
- 879
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