Terraform Installation Locally on Windows

If you would rather write Terraform on your own laptop with a proper editor, this lesson is for you. It is the alternative to the Linux VM approach. Both end up in the same place: a working terraform command.

The interesting part of a Windows install is that there is no installer wizard. Terraform is shipped as one single executable file, terraform.exe. "Installing" it simply means putting that file somewhere sensible and telling Windows where to find it.

Step 1: Download the Windows binary

Open the official install page, developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/install, and find the Windows section. You will see binary downloads for different processor types:

Not sure? Open Settings > System > About and look at System type.

Click Download and you get a zip file such as terraform_1.16.5_windows_amd64.zip. The lecture shows version 1.11.4. Any newer 1.x version works for this course.

Step 2: Extract and move it to a permanent folder

Right click the zip and choose Extract All. Inside you will find a file named terraform whose Type is Application. That is the whole of Terraform (a licence text file may sit next to it).

You could leave it in Downloads, but that folder tends to get cleaned up. A better place:

1. Open C:\Program Files
2. Create a new folder called Terraform
3. Move terraform.exe into it, so the full path is C:\Program Files\Terraform\terraform.exe

Windows will ask for administrator permission to create a folder in Program Files. If you do not have admin rights, use a folder inside your user profile instead, for example C:\Users\<you>\tools\terraform.

Step 3: Add the folder to PATH

When you type terraform in a terminal, Windows searches every folder listed in the PATH environment variable. Our new folder is not in that list yet, so we add it.

The Path editor. Click New and add the folder that contains terraform.exe.

Step 4: Verify

Environment variable changes only reach terminals opened after the change. Close any open Command Prompt or PowerShell window, open a fresh one, and run:

terraform -v

Terraform v1.16.5
on windows_amd64

If you see 'terraform' is not recognized as an internal or external command, check these three things:

Step 5: Set up VS Code

You need an editor to write .tf files. VS Code is free and has the best Terraform support.

1. Download VS Code from code.visualstudio.com and install it.
2. Open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X), search for HashiCorp Terraform, and install the extension published by HashiCorp. It gives you syntax highlighting, auto completion for resource names and arguments, and formatting on save.

Now create a folder for your work. Keeping each Terraform project in its own folder is not compulsory, but it matters a lot later: Terraform treats every .tf file in a folder as one configuration.

mkdir D:\terraform-scripts
cd D:\terraform-scripts
code .

code . opens VS Code in the current folder. You can also use File > Open Folder... in VS Code and select terraform-scripts. Everything you write in the next lessons goes into this folder.

What is still missing

Terraform is installed, but it cannot create anything in your AWS account yet. AWS needs to know who you are and whether you are allowed to create resources. That is done with credentials, which is the topic of the next lesson, Terraform Security Credentials.

Try It Yourself

1. Download the correct Windows binary for your processor, move it to a permanent folder and add that folder to PATH.
2. Open a new PowerShell window and run terraform -v and terraform -help.
3. Install VS Code and the HashiCorp Terraform extension.
4. Create a terraform-scripts folder and open it with code .. Create an empty file called main.tf and check that VS Code shows the Terraform icon for it.

Official references

• Install Terraform
• Terraform CLI: version command
• Terraform CLI commands overview

Written By: Shramik Masti