There a a few things to consider when programming in assembly using NASM under Windows:
NASM is just an assembler
A linker is needed to create an executable.
Windows API are implemented as a user space library.
The library is not entirely in user space, some functions cross the boundary, but the interface to the application is a set of DLL, most notably: kernel32.dll, user32.dll and so on.
Windows' executables can have different subsystems.
Among the others the IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_GUI and IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CUI are the most used, the former being used by applications that create windows and the latter by applications that use a console1.
The linker takes to COFF object (.obj) file generated by the assembler, takes a set of library definitions (.lib) and perform these important steps:
It resolves the call to external functions found in the object file.
A function marked as external is meant to be found in one of the library definition, the linker then fixes the call instruction to point to a location where the address of the function will be found at run-time.
It add the dependency libraries to the final executable.
This is done with the help of the PE file format, basically if F if found on the library L then L is added to the dependencies list along with a location where to write the address of F.
The loader will do the rest.
The linking is actually more complex than that.
It is also responsible for setting the various PE flags and settings, including the subsytem and the entrypoint.
To write an executable using NASM with need:
- A linker.
- The set of library definitions.
These can be found in the Windows SDK2.
The linker we will use in this example is the Microsoft LINK linker.
As @CodyGray pointed out in its comment (quoting because I'm lazy):
The Windows 7 version of the SDK that you linked does include all of the build tools. The Windows 8 SDK changed and no longer ships with the command-line build tools, forcing you to download a Visual Studio package
Once we have the tools, we can start programming.
We will use WriteFile to write a string to the standard output (like we would in Linux assembly).
The handler to the standard output must be retrieved with GetStdHandle though.
In Windows you can exit a process with a ret even with no CRT (C run-time) linked (i.e. in a bare process).
I won't explain the Window 64 ABI nor the trickery of programming in 64-bit.
BITS 64
DEFAULT REL ;RIP relative addressing by default
GLOBAL main ;Main must be visible to the linker
;Function the linker will look for in other modules (libs or objs)
EXTERN WriteFile
EXTERN GetStdHandle
STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE EQU -11
SECTION .data
strHelloWorld db "Hello world!", 13, 10, 0
lenHelloWorld dd $-strHelloWorld
hOut dd 0 ;Will store STDOUT handler
SECTION .text
main:
sub rsp, 30h ;20h (Home space) + 10h (params)
;Get STDOUT handler (Handler are 32-bit values)
mov ecx, STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE
call GetStdHandle
mov DWORD [hOut], eax ;Useless as now, for future reuse
;Write strHelloWorld to STDOUT
mov ecx, eax
lea rdx, [strHelloWorld]
mov r8d, DWORD [lenHelloWorld]
xor r9, r9
mov QWORD [rsp+20h], r9
call WriteFile
add rsp, 30h
ret
To create an executable from this source, we first assemble it into a 64-bit object file:
nasm -fwin64 hello.asm -o hello.obj
then we link it against the kernel32 library (the only one we need):
link /MACHINE:X64 /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE /OUT:hello.exe /NODEFAULTLIB /ENTRY:main kernel32.lib hello.obj
the CLI switches are pretty straightforward, NODEFAULTLIB avoid linking with MSVCVRXX.lib, the Microsoft CRT.
Those are the minimal switches necessary to build an executable in this example.
I assume you are smart enough to fix the path issues when issuing the commands above, particularly you can tell link where to find the lib files.
For this example I just copied them from the SDK installation folder.
As proposed in other answers, you can use other assemblers that may came with a linker.
Another possible developing environment is to use gcc (either inside cygwin or as mingw) to perform the linker step.
1 In this case Windows automatically create a console for the application and set the standard handlers appropriately. GUI application can recreate the console too (or more than one), so IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_GUI must be intended as "No console by default".
2 The version linked is the first Google result, invest more time in finding a suitable version. Also, I'm not sure if there is a linker in the Windows SDK or you need to download a Visual Studio instead.
