<p>I've been using OpenGL extensions on Windows the <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14413/using-opengl-extensions-on-windows">painful way</a>. Is GLEW the easier way to go? How do I get started with it?</p>

Yes, the
OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library
(GLEW) is a painless way to use OpenGL extensions on Windows. Here's how to get started on it:
Identify the OpenGL extension and the extension APIs you wish to use. OpenGL extensions are listed in the
OpenGL Extension Registry
.
Check if your graphic card supports the extensions you wish to use. Download and install the latest drivers and SDKs for your graphics card.
Recent versions of
NVIDIA OpenGL SDK
ship with GLEW. If you're using this, then you don't need to do some of the following steps.
Download
GLEW
and unzip it.
Add the GLEW
bin
path to your Windows
PATH
environment variable. Alternatively, you can also place the
glew32.dll
in a directory where Windows picks up its DLLs.
Add the GLEW
include
path to your compiler's include directory list.
Add the GLEW
lib
path to your compiler's library directory list.
Instruct your compiler to use
glew32.lib
during linking. If you're using Visual C++ compilers then one way to do this is by adding the following line to your code:
```
```
#pragma comment(lib, "glew32.lib")
```
```
Add a
```
#include <GL/glew.h>
```
line to your code. Ensure that this is placed above the includes of other GL header files. (You may actually not need the GL header files includes if you include
```
glew.h
```
.)
Initialize GLEW using
```
glewInit()
```
after you've initialized GLUT or GL. If it fails, then something is wrong with your setup.
```
```
if (GLEW_OK != glewInit())
{
    // GLEW failed!
    exit(1);
}
```
```
Check if the extension(s) you wish to use are now available through GLEW. You do this by checking a boolean variable named
GLEW
_your_extension_name
which is exposed by GLEW.
Example:
```
```
if (!GLEW_EXT_framebuffer_object)
{
    exit(1);
}
```
```
That's it! You can now use the OpenGL extension calls in your code just as if they existed naturally for Windows.