This tutorial assumes that you are using either the 7th or 8th Edition of Assembly Language for x86 Processors, and you are using Visual Studio 2026.

Before starting the tutorials listed below, please visit our GitHub project page (surferkip/asmbook) to download the following files:

• Irvine.zip - code examples and required libraries
• Project32_VS2026.zip - sample 32-bit Visual Studio 2026 project, configured for assembly language
• Project64_VS2026.zip - sample 64-bit Visual Studio 2026 project, configured for assembly language

Topics:

• Upgrading existing Visual Studio Assembly projects to VS 2026
• Tutorial: Building and running a 32-bit program
• Tutorial: Building and running a 64-bit program
• Building 16-bit programs
• Using the Visual Studio debugger
• EXE Programs blocked by antivirus software

Found an error in this document? Please email the author.

Required Setup for 32-bit Applications

Next, in the Create a new project dialog window, select C++ from the dropdown list that is currently labeled All languages. Now the dialog window will appear like this:

If you do not see C++ in the list, close Visual Studio and run a separate program named the Visual Studio Installer. If your computer is in a college laboratory, your account may not have sufficient privileges to run this program, so you can ask your lab supervisor to do it for you.

The C++ language package in Visual Studio always includes the Microsoft Assembler (MASM) tool, filename ml.exe. You can find it at
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2026\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.nn.nnnn\bin\HostX64\x86, where the n characters above indicate digits in the version number of your current VS installation.)

The Book's Example Programs

The folllowing files should appear in the c:\Irvine directory:

A subdirectory named Examples will contain all the example programs shown in the book, source code for the book's 16-, 32-, and 64-bit libraries, and a couple of sample projects for earlier versions of Visual Studio.

Configuring Visual Studio

Select the C++ Configuration

1. Select Tools >> Import and Export Settings from the menu
2. Select the "Import selected environment settings" radio button
3. Select the "No, just import..." radio button
4. Select "Visual C++" from the Default Settings List and click the Next button
5. Click the Finish button, then click the Close button
6. Notice the tabs on the left and right sides of the Visual Studio workspace. Close the Server Explorer and Toolbox tabs. (Optionally, you can use the mouse to drag the Solution Explorer tool window to either side of the workspace.) If you should ever accidentally close a window in the future, you can bring it back: select View from the menu, and locate the name of the windows from the View menu list.

Optional Step: Set the tab indent size

Tutorial: Building and running a 32-bit program

Opening a Project

Visual Studio requires 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.

Following the instructions at the top of this web page, download the Project32_VS2026.zip file and unzip it into your working directory. It contains a sample asm test file named AddTwo.asm.

Follow these steps:

1. Start Visual Studio.
2. Open our sample Visual Studio project file by selecting File/Open/Project from the Visual Studio menu.
3. Navigate to your working folder where you unzipped our project file, and select the file named Project.sln.
4. Once the project has been opened, you will see the project name in Visual Studio's Solution Explorer window. You should also see an assembly language source file in the project named AddTwo.asm. Double-click the file name to open it in the editor.

You should see the following program in the editor window:

; AddTwo.asm - adds two 32-bit integers.
; Chapter 3 example

.386
.model flat,stdcall
.stack 4096
ExitProcess proto,dwExitCode:dword

.code
main proc
	mov	eax,5				
	add	eax,6				

	invoke ExitProcess,0
main endp
end main

In the future, you can use this file as a starting point to create new assembly language programs by copying it to your own personal workspace (possibly on a network drive), and optionally renaming the solution file.

Build the Program

Now you will build (assemble and link) the sample program. Select Build Project from the Build menu. In the Output window for Visual Studio at the bottom of the screen, you should see messages similar to the following, indicating the build result:

If you do not see these messages, the project has probably not been modified since it was last built. No problem--just select Rebuild Project from the Build menu.

Run the Program in Debug Mode

The easiest way to run your first program is to use the debugger. First, you must set a breakpoint. When 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. Here's how to do it:

1. Make sure the ASM source code file is open in the editor window.
2. Click the mouse along the border to the left of the mov eax,5 statement. A large red dot should appear in the margin.
3. Select Start Debugging from the Debug menu. The program should run and pause on the line with the breakpoint. (Optionally, you can close the Diagnostic Tools, Autos, and Call Stack windows.)
Don't be surprised to see a new window instantly appear named the "Console window", with a plain black background. It's the window that displays your program's output while you're stepping through the code.
4. Press the F10 key, which executes the Step Over command, to execute the current statement. Continue pressing the same key until the yellow arrow is next to the invoke statement in the source code.
5. Press F10 one more time to end the program.

You can remove a breakpoint by clicking its dot with the mouse. Take a few minutes to experiment with the Debug menu commands. Set more breakpoints and run the program again.

Here's what your program will look like when paused at the breakpoint:

Running a program from the Command Prompt

Registers

Soon you will want to display CPU registers when debugging your programs. Here's how to make them visible: First, under the Tools >> Options menu, select Debbuging in the left panel, and select Enable address-level debugging. Next, set a breakpoint in your source code on an executable statement, run your program in Debug mode, select Windows from the Debug menu, and then select Registers from the drop-down list.

The Registers window may appear docked to the Visual Studio workspace, but you may find it helpful to let the window float so you can move it anywhere on your computer desktop. You can grab the window header with the mouse and pull it to a new location. You will also want to display the CPU flags inside the Registers window. To do that, right click inside the Registers window and check the word Flags from the popup menu. Here's what it looks like:

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 red square button on the toolbar. To remove a breakpoint from a program, click its red dot to make it disappear.

A reminder, you might want to review our tutorial: Using the Visual Studio debugger

Building and Running Other Programs

Suppose you want to run another example program, or possibly create your own program. You can remove the existing assembly language file from the Solution Explorer window and insert a new .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 Remove. 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.

Adding a File to a Project

An easy 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. The physical file will not be copied--the project only holds a reference to the file's location. Try this now:

1. Remove the AddTwo.asm file from your project.
2. Add a reference to the file Examples\ch03\AddTwoSum.asm to the project.
3. Build and run the project.

Copying a Source File

One way to make a copy of an existing source code file is to 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.

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Tutorial: Building and running a 64-bit program

Do the following steps, in order:

1. Following the instructions at the top of this web page, download the Project64_VS2026.zip file and unzip it into your working directory.
2. In Visual Studio 2026, select Open Project from the File menu, navigate to the Project64_VS2026 folder, and select the file named Project.sln.
3. You are about to add an existing source code file to the project. To do that, right-click on Project in the Solution Explorer window, select Add,  select Existing Item, navigate to the book's Examples\ch03\64 bit" folder, select AddTwoSum_64.asm, and click the Add button to close the dialog window.
4. Open the AddTwoSum_64.asm file for editing by double-clicking its filename in the Solution Explorer window.

You should see the following program in the editor window:

; AddTwoSum_64.asm - Chapter 3 example.

ExitProcess proto

.data
sum qword 0

.code
main proc
   mov  rax,5
   add  rax,6
   mov  sum,rax

   mov  ecx,0
   call ExitProcess

main endp
end

Build the Program

1>------ Build started: Project: Project, Configuration: Debug x64 ------
1>  Assembling AddTwoSum_64.asm...
1>  Project64.vcxproj -> ...\Project64_VS2022\x64\Debug\Project.exe
========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

You use the same Visual Studio commands to run and debug 64-bit programs as you would for 32-bit programs. Notice that the Registers window displays all the 64-bit registers:

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If you plan to build 16-bit applications, you need to add two new commands to the Visual Studio Tools menu. 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. Download the batch file here (rename the .txt extension to .bat after downloading): make16_vs2026.txt.

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:

Uncheck the "Close on exit" option and 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, close any Visual Studio project that happens to be open. Then, select File | Open | File from the menu and choose 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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