Getting Started with MASM and Visual Studio 2010

Updated 8/4/2010

This tutorial shows you how to set up Visual Studio 2010, including Visual Studio 2010 Express, to work with
Microsoft MASM.

If you are using Visual Studio 2008 or Visual C++ 2008 Express, Click here.

If you're in a hurry to get started, you only need to read Item 1.

1. Project properties settings

2. Generating a source listing file
3. Using the Visual Studio debugger
4. MASM syntax highlighting
5. Assembling, linking, and debugging with a batch file
6. Custom Build Rules

The book's example programs in Chapters 1-14 have been successfully tested in Windows XP, 32-bit Vista
and the 32-bit version of Windows 7. On the other hand, many programs in Chapters 15-17 will not run in
any Microsoft OS later than Windows 98, because they rely on direct access to hardware and system
memory. You cannot directly run 16-bit applications in any 64-bit version of Windows.

Found an error in this document? Please email me immediately

Required Setup for 32-bit Applicationss

First, you must install Visual Studio 2010 (any version), which includes the current version of the Microsoft
Assembler. You can verify that the Microsoft Assembler is installed by looking for the file ml.exe in the \vc\bin
folder of your Visual Studio installation directory, such as c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.x\vc\bin.

Next: Install the Book's Example Programs

Click this link to get the latest copy of the book's link libraries and example programs. The examples are
stored in a self-extracting archive file that automatically extracts to the c:\Irvine folder. Unless you have
some objection to using that location, do not alter the path. (Lab managers: you can designate c:\Irvine
directory as read-only.) If you plan to change the installation location, read our instructions relating to
changing project properties.

The folllowing files will be copied into the c:\Irvine directory:

Filename Description
cmd.exe Shortcut to the Windows command-line interpreter (named cmd.exe)
GraphWin.inc Include file for writing Windows applications
Irvine16.inc Include file used with the Irvine16 link library (16-bit applications)
Irvine16.lib 16-bit link function library used with this book
Irvine32.inc Include file used with the Irvine32 link library (32-bit applications)
Link16.exe 16-bit linker
Irvine32.lib 32-bit link function library used with this book
User32.lib Basic I/O link library
Macros.inc Include file containing macros (explained in Chapter 10)
SmallWin.inc Small-sized include file, used by Irvine32.inc
make16.bat Batch file for building 16-bit applications
VirtualKeys.inc Keyboard code definitions file, used by Irvine32.inc
A subdirectory named Examples will contain all the example programs shown in the book, as well as all the
source code for the book's 16- and 32-bit link libraries.

Building a Sample Assembly Language Program

Preliminary Step: Set Tab Size to 5

Start Visual C++ Express, and select Options from the Tools menu. Select Text Editor, Select All
Languages, and select Tabs:

Set the Tab Size and Indent Size to 5.

Opening a Project

Visual Studio and Visual C++ Express require assembly language source files to belong to a project, which is a
kind of container. A project holds configuration information such as the locations of the assembler, linker, and
required libraries. A project has its own folder, and it holds the names and locations of all files belonging to it.
We have created a sample project folder in the c:\Irvine\Examples\ch03 directory, and its name is Project.

Do the following steps, in order:

1. Start Visual Studio or Visual C++ Express.

2. First you will open an existing Visual Studio project file. If you're using Visual Studio, select Open
Project from the File menu. (Or, if you're using Visual Studio Express, select Open, and select
Project/Solution.)
3. Navigate to the c:\Irvine\Examples\ch03 folder and open the file named Project.sln.
4. In the Solution Explorer window, you will see the word Project. This is the name of a Visual Studio
project.
5. Next, you need to add a source code file named main.asm to the project. To do that, right-click on
Project, select Add, select Existing Item, select main.asm, and click the Add button to close the
dialog window. (You can use this sequence of commands in the future to add any asm file into a
project.)
6. Next, you will open the main.asm file for editing. Double-click the file named main.asm to open it in the
editing window. (Visual Studio users may see a popup dialog asking for the encoding method used in the
asm file. just click the OK button to continue.)

Tip: If the Solution Explorer window is not visible, select Solution Explorer from the View menu. Also, if
you do not see main.asm in the Solution Explorer window, it might be hidden behind another window.
To bring it to the front, click the Solution Explorer tab from the tabs shown along the bottom of the
window.

You should see the following program in the editor window:

TITLE MASM Template (main.asm)

 ; Description:
;
; Revision date:

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.data
myMessage BYTE "MASM program example",0dh,0ah,0

.code
main PROC
call Clrscr

mov edx,OFFSET myMessage

call WriteString

exit
main ENDP

END main

Later, we'll show you how to copy this program and use it as a starting point to write your own programs.

Next, you will build (assemble and link) the sample program. Right-click the project name in the Solution
Explorer window and select Build from the popup menu.

In Visual Studio's Output window you should see messages similar to the following, indicating the build
progress:

1>------ Build started: Project: Project, Configuration: Debug Win32 -------

1>Assembling...
1>Assembling: .\main.asm
1>Linking...
1>Embedding manifest...
1>Build log was saved at "file://g:\masm\Project_sample\Debug\BuildLog.htm"
1>Project - 0 error(s), 0 warning(s)
========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

If you do not see these messages, the project has probably not been modified since it was last built. No
problem--just select the project name and choose Rebuild.

Run the Program Without Debugging

You will need to add the Start Without Debugging command to the Visual Studio toolbar menu. Go to the
Tools menu, select Customize, select Commands. Choose the Menu Bar radio button and select Debug from the
dropdown list next to it. Select Add Command, select Debug, select Start Without Debugging, and click the OK
button. Click the Close button. Verify that Start Without debugging has been added to your Debug menu.

Select Start Without Debugging from the Debug menu. The following console window should appear,
although your window will be larger than the one shown here:
The "Press any key to continue..." message is generated automatically when you select Start Without
Debugging from the Debug menu.

Congratulations, you have just run your first Assembly Language program.

Press any key to close the Console window.

When you assembled and linked the project, a file named Project.exe was created inside the project's
\Debug folder. This is the file that executes when you run the project. You can execute Project.exe by
double-clicking its name inside Windows Explorer, but it will just flash on the screen and disappear. That
is because Windows Explorer does not pause the display before closing the command window.

Creating New Projects of Your Own

Before long, you will want to create your own projects. The easiest way to do this is to copy the entire
c:\Irvine\Examples\Project_Sample folder to a new location. Copy it to a folder in which you have
read/write permissions. (If you're working in a college computer lab, a useful location is a portable USB drive.
Then you can modify the program, build, and run it again.

Running a Program in the Debugger

In this step, you will set a breakpoint inside the sample program. Then you will use the Visual Studio debugger
to step through the program's execution one statement at a time.

1. To begin stepping through your program in Debug mode, press the F10 key.
2. A yellow arrow will appear next to the first program statement (call Clrscr).The arrow indicates that the
statement is next to be executed.
3. Press the F10 key (called Step Over) to execute the current statement. Continue pressing F10 until the
program is about to execute the exit statement.
4. A small black window icon should appear on your Windows status bar. Open it and look at the contents
of the Command window. You should see the words "MASM program example" in the window.
5. Press F10 one more time to end the program.
Note: If you execute your program in Debug mode without setting any breakpoints or without stepping
through the code, the program's output window will disappear. Visual Studio does not generate a "Press any
key to continue" prompt when running in debug mode.

Registers

If you want to display the CPU registers, do the following: Start debugging the program, then select Windows
from the Debug menu. Select Registers from the drop-down list. The bottom window will display the register
contents. Right click this window and check the item Flags to enable the display of conditional flags.

You can interrupt a debugging session at any time by selecting Stop Debugging from the Debug menu. You can
do the same by clicking the blue square button on the toolbar. To remove a breakpoint from the program, click
on the red dot so that it disappears.

Setting a BreakPoint

If you set a breakpoint in a program, you can use the debugger to execute the program a full speed (more or
less) until it reaches the breakpoint. At that point, the debugger drops into single-step mode.

1. Click the mouse along the border to the left of the call WriteString statement. A large red dot should
appear in the margin.
2. Select Start Debugging from the Debug menu. The program should run, and pause on the line with the
breakpoint, showing the same Yellow arrow as before.
3. Press F10 until the program finishes.

You can remove a breakpoint by clicking its red dot with the mouse. Take a few minutes to experiment with
the Debug menu commands. Set more breakpoints and run the program again. For the time being, you can
use the F11 key to step through the program in the same way the F10 key did.

Building and Running Other Programs

Suppose you want to run another example program, or possibly create your own program. You can either edit
and modify main.asm, or you can remove main.asm from the project and insert some other .asm file into the
project.

To remove a program from a project without deleting the file, right-click its name in the Solution
Explorer window. In the context menu, select Exclude from Project. If you change your mind and
decide to add it back to the project, right-click in the same window, select Add, select Existing item,
and select the file you want to add.
To remove a program from a project and delete the source code file, select the file with the mouse and
press the Del key. Or, you can right-click the file name and select Remove.

Adding a File to a Project

The easiest way to add an assembly language source file to an open project is to drag its filename with the
mouse from a Windows Explorer window onto the name of your project in the Solution Explorer window. A
reference to the file (not a copy) will be inserted in your project's directory. Try this now:

1. Remove the main.asm file from your project.

2. Add a reference to the file c:\Irvine\Examples\ch03\AddSub.asm to the project.
3. Build and run the project.

Here is what you should see in the Console window, except that only your EAX register will have the same
value as ours:

When you press a key, the console window will close.

Copying a source file

If you want to make a copy of an existing file, use Windows Explorer to copy the file into your project
directory. Then, right-click the project name in Solution Explorer, select Add, select Existing Item, and select
the filename.

Return to top or read about Project Properties settings.

Building 16-bit Applications (Chapters 14-17)

Only Chapters 14 through 17 require you to build 16-bit applications. Except for a few exceptions, which are
noted in the book, your 16-bit applications will run under the 32-bit versions of Windows (XP, Vista, 7). But
16-bit applications will not run directly in any 64-bit version of Windows.
If you plan to build 16-bit applications, you need to add two new commands to the Tools menu in Visual C++
Express (or Visual Studio). To add a command, select External Tools from the Tools menu. The following
dialog will appear, although many of the items in your list on the left side will be missing:

Step 1: Create the Build 16-bit ASM Command

Click the Add button and fill in the Title, Command, Arguments, and Initial directory fields as shown in the
screen snapshot. If you click the buttons with arrows on the right side of the Arguments and Initial directory
fields, a convenient list appears. You can select an item without having to worry about spelling:
Click the Apply button to save the command.

Step 2: Create the Run 16-bit ASM Command

Click the Add button again, and create a new command named Run 16-bit ASM:

Click the OK button to save the command and close the External Tools dialog.

Testing Your new 16-Bit Commands

To test your new 16-bit commands, open the file named 16-bit.asm from the ch03 folder in the book's
example programs. Select Build 16-bit ASM from the Tools menu. The following command window should
appear, showing the successful execution of the assembler and linker, followed by a listing of all files related to
this program:
Press a key to close the window. Next, you will run the program. Select Run 16-bit ASM from the Tools
menu. The following window will appear, although the contents of all registers except EAX will be different:

Press a key to close the window.

You have completed the setup for building and running 16-bit assembly language programs.

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Project Properties Settings

You might be interested to know more about how Visual C++ projects are set up for assembly language
programs.

Assuming that our sample project is still open, select Project Properties from the Project menu. Expand the
entry under Configuration Properties. Then expand the entry named Microsoft Macro Assembler. This is
what you should see:
Click the entry named General under Microsoft Macro Assembler . Notice that the Include Paths option
has been set to the c:\Irvine directory. This tells the assembler where to find files having a filename extension
of ".inc". Here is a sample:
Next, select the Listing File entry, also in the Microsoft Macro Assembler group. Notice that the Assembled
Code Listing File entry (shown below) has been assigned a macro name (starting with $) that identifies the
name of the source input file, with a file extension of .lst. So, if your program were named main.asm, the
listing file would be named main.lst:
Find the Linker entry under Configuration Properties. Select the Input entry, and notice that two filenames
have been added to the Additional Dependencies entry. The user32.lib file is a standard MS-Windows file.
The irvine32.lib file is the link library file supplied with this book. There must be at least one space separating
the file names:
Next, select Linker under Configuration Properties, and then select General. The Additional Library
Directories option equals c:\Irvine, so the linker can find the Irvine32.lib library file:
Select Linker under the Configuration Properties and select Debugging. Notice that the Generate Debug
Info option is set to Yes:
Select System under the Linker entry. Notice that the SubSystem option has been set to Console:
We use the Console setting because it is easy for assembly language programs to write output to a text
console (Command) window. This is the window you see when running cmd.exe from the Start > Run menu in
Windows.

Click the OK button to close the Project Property Pages window.

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Generating a Source Listing File

Open the project. From the menu, select Project, select Project Properties. In the list box, select Microsoft
Macro Assembler, then select Listing File. Set the Assembled Code Listing file option to
$(InputName).lst.

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MASM syntax highlighting

When a text editor uses syntax highlighting, language keywords, strings, and other elements appear in
different colors. Visual Studio and Visual C++ Express can highlight MASM reserved words and strings, as
shown in the following example:

This won't happen automatically, but you can create a syntax definition file named Usertype.dat that contains
MASM keywords. Then when Visual Studio (or Visual C++ Express) starts, it reads the syntax file and
highlights MASM keywords.

Here are the required steps to set up MASM syntax highlighting in Visual Studio or Visual C++ Express:

1) Download the Usertype.dat file given here to a folder in which you have read/write permissions. If you are
using Windows Vista, download to My Documents, or C:\temp, or any folder that doesn't have security
restrictions.

2) Copy Usertype.dat to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio xx.x\Common7\IDE folder. If you are
using Windows Vista, it will display a verification window before copying the file. ("xx" may be 9.x or 10.x)

3) Open Visual Studio or Visual C++ Express, select Options from the Tools menu, select Text Editor, and
select File Extension. On the right side of the dialog (shown below), enter asm as the extension, select
Microsoft Visual C++ from the Editor list, and click the Add button. Click the OK button to save your
changes.
Close Visual Studio and restart it. Open your project and display an ASM file. You should see syntax
highlighting in the editor.

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Assembling, Linking, and Debugging with a Batch File

Many people like to use a Windows batch file to assemble and link programs. A batch file is a text file
containing a sequence of commands that execute as if they had been typed at the command prompt. In fact,
they are powerful enough to contain variables, loops, IF statements, and so on.

The easiest way to run a batch file is to first open a Command window and then type the name of the batch
file (along with arguments) at the command prompt. To open a Command window, you must execute a
program named cmd.exe. We will make that easy for you.

Step 1: Download a ZIP file containing the following items:

A shortcut to cmd.exe, which opens a Command window in the current directory

asm32.bat, a batch file for assembling and linking programs
main.asm, a sample assembly language program

Step 2: Extract the ZIP file into the c:\Irvine\Examples directory on your computer.

Step 3: Do the following:

Copy asm32.bat to any directory on your system path. By doing this, you make it possible for MS-
Windows to recognize asm32 as a valid command when typed at the MS-Windows command prompt.(If
you want to find out which directories are on the current system path, type path and press Enter at the
system command prompt.)
Double-click the shortcut to cmd.exe. A Command window should appear.
At the command prompt in this window, type asm32 and press Enter. This will execute the asm32 batch
file and display help information.

This file assembles, links, and debugs a single assembly language

source file. Before using it, install Visual Studio 2010 in the following
directory:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0

Next, install the Irvine 6th edition link libraires and include
files in the following directory: C:\Irvine

Finally, copy this batch file to a location on your system path.

We recommend the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\bin

Command-line syntax:

asm32 [/H | /h | -H | -h] -- display this help information

asm32 filelist -- assemble and link all files

asm32 /D filelist -- assemble, link, and debug
asm32 /C filelist -- assemble only

<filelist> is a list of up to 5 filenames (without extensions),

separated by spaces. The filenames are assumed to refer to files
having .asm extensions. Command-line switches are case-sensitive.

Type the following command to assemble and link a source file named main.asm:

asm32 main

You should see the following messages:

Assembling: main.asm

The file main.obj was produced.

..................................

Linking main.obj to the Irvine32, Kernel32, and User32 libraries.

The file main.exe was produced.

..................................

In fact, several files were produced.

main.obj - the object file

main.ilk - incremental link status file
main.pdb - debug symbol file

You might get a linker error saying that it cannot find Kernel32.lib. This file is normally installed as part of the
Windows SDK, but you can get a copy here. Copy this file into your c:\Irvine folder.

If there were syntax errors in your program, you would see error messages generated by the assembler. Here
is an example:

Assembling: main.asm
main.asm(9) : error A2008: syntax error : myMessage
main.asm(15) : error A2006: undefined symbol : myMessage

You would then open the main.asm file with a text editor (such as Notepad), fix the errors, and run the asm32
batch file again.

Although we used a file named main.asm in this example, the asm32.bat batch file will work
for any assembly language file, regardless of the name. The only requirement is that your
assembly language source file have a .asm filename extension.

Assembling Programs in Other Directories

No doubt, you will want to assemble programs in various different disk folders, not just the batch_sample
folder used in the foregoing example. All you need to do is copy the cmd.exe shortcut we gave you to your
working directory, where your assembly language source files are located. When you double-click to run the
shortcut, it will open a Command window in the current folder.

Assembling, Linking, and Debugging

In addition to assembling and linking, you can use the asm32.bat file to launch your program in the Visual
Studio debugger. Try the following command:

asm32 /D main

If the program assembles and links with no errors, your program should load in Visual Studio. The first time
you do this with a new program, the source code will not appear. All you have to do is press the F10 key to
begin debugging, and your program should appear with a yellow band across the first executable line:
(Depending on how Visual Studio is configured, you might have to press F8 to do the same thing.)

From here, you can step through the program. When you get to the call to WriteString, you can even trace
into its code by pressing the F11 key (trace to). When you finish, close Visual Studio.

From this time on, when you load the same program in the Visual Studio debugger, your source code will
appear right away.

Assembling without Linking

Occasionally, you may want to assemble programs but not link them. This happens, for example, when you
are creating a multimodule project and you want to assemble each asm file into an obj file separately before
linking them into the final exe program. Or, you might be assembling a module to be inserted into a link library
(like Irvine32.lib).

To assemble a source file only, inser the /C option before the name of the file being assembled:

asm32 /C main

You should see the following output:

Assembling: main.asm

The file main.obj was produced.

..................................
If you are interested in learning more about how batch file commands work, here are some reference links we
found:

Allenware.com: Batch file tutorial

Microsoft TechNet article: Creating Truly Powerful Batch Files, by Brien Posey
Microsoft TechNet article: Using Batch Files in Windows NT, by Troy Thompson

Links go out of date quickly, but you can google for Windows batch files and get plenty of hits.

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