webview2

go-webview2

This package provides an interface for using the Microsoft Edge WebView2 component with Go. It is based on webview/webview and provides a compatible API.

Please note that this package only supports Windows, since it provides functionality specific to WebView2. If you wish to use this library for Windows, but use webview/webview for all other operating systems, you could use the go-webview-selector package instead. However, you will not be able to use WebView2-specific functionality.

If you wish to build desktop applications in Go using web technologies, please consider Wails. It uses go-webview2 internally on Windows.

If you are using Windows 10+, the WebView2 runtime should already be installed. If not, download it from:

WebView2 runtime

Requirements

• Go 1.21 or later - This library uses runtime.Pinner to ensure safe interaction with native Windows COM code
• Windows 10+ with WebView2 runtime installed

Basic Usage

package main

import (
    "github.com/Krakinsight/go-webview2"
)

func main() {
    w := webview2.NewWithOptions(webview2.WebViewOptions{
        Debug:     true,
        AutoFocus: true,
        WindowOptions: webview2.WindowOptions{
            Title:  "My App",
            Width:  800,
            Height: 600,
            Center: true,
        },
    })
    
    if w == nil {
        panic("Failed to load webview")
    }
    defer w.Destroy()
    
    w.Navigate("https://example.com")
    w.Run()
}

Features

Window Positioning

The Location struct allows precise window positioning:

// Position from top-left corner
Location: &webview2.Location{X: 100, Y: 100}

// Position from bottom-right corner using negative coordinates
Location: &webview2.Location{X: -500, Y: -1}

Note: Negative coordinates use Windows work area (excludes taskbar), ensuring windows never overlap the taskbar.

Custom User-Agent

webview2.NewWithOptions(webview2.WebViewOptions{
    UserAgent: "MyApp/1.0 (CustomBrowser)",
})

Access to WebView2 Settings

w := webview2.NewWithOptions(...)
settings := w.GetSettings()

// Configure zoom controls
settings.PutIsZoomControlEnabled(false)

// Disable browser accelerator keys
settings.PutAreBrowserAcceleratorKeysEnabled(false)

Accelerator Keys

w.SetAcceleratorKeyCallback(func(virtualKey uint) bool {
    switch virtualKey {
    case 0x74: // VK_F5
        fmt.Println("Blocked F5 refresh")
        return true // Block the key
    case 0x7B: // VK_F12  
        fmt.Println("Blocked DevTools")
        return true
    default:
        return false // Allow other keys
    }
})

Common virtual key codes:

• 0x74 - F5 (Refresh)
• 0x7B - F12 (DevTools)
• 0x41-0x5A - Letters A-Z
• 0x30-0x39 - Numbers 0-9

See Virtual-Key Codes for complete reference.

Window Styles

• WindowStyleDefault - Standard resizable window
• WindowStyleFixed - Non-resizable window
• WindowStyleBorderless - No borders/title bar (custom UI)
• WindowStyleToolWindow - Tool window (not in taskbar)

DPI Awareness

Control how your application handles high-DPI displays to ensure crisp rendering across different display configurations:

w := webview2.NewWithOptions(webview2.WebViewOptions{
    WindowOptions: webview2.WindowOptions{
        Title:                "My DPI-Aware App",
        Width:                800,
        Height:               600,
        DpiAwarenessContext:  webview2.DpiAwarenessContextPerMonitorAwareV2,
    },
})

Available DPI Awareness Modes:

• DpiAwarenessContextDefault - System default (no explicit setting)
• DpiAwarenessContextUnaware - Windows handles scaling (may appear blurry)
• DpiAwarenessContextSystemAware - Scales to primary monitor DPI
• DpiAwarenessContextPerMonitorAware - Adapts to each monitor
• DpiAwarenessContextPerMonitorAwareV2 - Recommended for Windows 10 1703+
• DpiAwarenessContextUnawareGdiScaled - Improved unaware mode (Windows 10 1809+)

Recommendation: Use DpiAwarenessContextPerMonitorAwareV2 for modern applications to ensure crisp rendering across all displays. This setting is particularly important for applications that will be used on high-DPI monitors or multi-monitor setups with different DPI settings.

Note: The DPI awareness setting affects the entire process and should be set early during window creation. On older Windows versions where the API is unavailable, the setting is silently ignored for backward compatibility.

Window Close from JavaScript

You cannot create a binding named close() because it conflicts with the built-in window.close() function. However, you can easily add a closewebview() function in JavaScript by binding it to w.Destroy():

w := webview2.NewWithOptions(webview2.WebViewOptions{
    Debug:     true,
    WindowOptions: webview2.WindowOptions{
        Title:  "My App",
        Width:  800,
        Height: 600,
    },
})

// Bind close function
w.Bind("closewebview", func() {
    w.Destroy()
})

Then in JavaScript:

// Simple close button
<button onclick="closewebview()">Close Window</button>

// With confirmation
<button onclick="if(confirm('Close?')) closewebview()">Close</button>

Demos

Available Demos

Basic centered window:

go run ./cmd/demo-basic

Positioned window with custom style:

go run ./cmd/demo-positioned

Borderless window:

go run ./cmd/demo-borderless

Tool window (top-right):

go run ./cmd/demo-toolwindow

Bottom-right positioned:

go run ./cmd/demo-bottomright

DPI awareness demonstration:

go run ./cmd/demo-dpi-aware

Accelerator keys (F5/F12 blocking):

go run ./cmd/demo-accelerator-keys

Window close from JavaScript:

go run ./cmd/demo-close

This will use go-winloader to load an embedded copy of WebView2Loader.dll. If you want, you can also provide a newer version of WebView2Loader.dll in the DLL search path and it should be picked up instead. It can be acquired from the WebView2 SDK (which is permissively licensed.)