LNK1104 when using MASM 64bit

Question

I'm currently trying to learn Assembly for x64 Windows. I tried the example code from this Intel website, but whenever I try to compile it with the command given in the document:

ml64 hello.asm /link /subsystem:windows /defaultlib:kernel32.lib /defaultlib:user32.lib /entry:Start

I always get an

LNK1104 error

I know that it means the compiler can't find the library file, I googled the problem and quickly found that I need Visual Studio with Windows SDK, which I downloaded and installed. But still can't find a kernel32.lib or user32.lib in any files other than the Windows system files.

I tried everything and I simply can't fix it. I hope someone could help figure this out.

Answer 1

There is a well-known MASM32 SDK available created by hutch--. This package contains the requested libraries in a (legacy) 32-bit version.

But there is also a 64-bit update of that famous package by hutch--:
Current build of the 64 bit MASM SDK.
It should contain the .inc and .lib files you need and more...

This is the current build of the 64 bit MASM SDK. This one is a lot closer to complete and with the correct Microsoft binaries added to it, it is capable of building a wide array of application types. It can be use in 2 different ways, it should be unzipped from the root directory of the partition that it is being installed on. You can either manually add it to an installation of the MASM32 SDK OR you can install it on a partition that does not have MASM32 on it and simply rename the buildx64 directory to MASM32. Installing it on another partition is the preferred technique as QE has its menus and accessories set up for building 64 bit code.

You still need to add the Microsoft binaries which would typically be from an installation of vs2017 or from an earlier version for Win7 64. In the bin64 directory there is a file called "Microsoft_File_List.txt" which shows the files you need. The list is from the current version of Visual Studio 2017 version and if this is the version you have, use the ML64 from the "x86_amd64" directory that is 402,584 bytes in size.

In the "buildx64" directory is a batch file called "makeall.bat". This must be run to build all of the libraries and include files.

They are the gold standard of Windows assembly developing.