Microsoft Windows for 64-bit Extended Systems

Compiling "Hello World" for Windows 64-bit Extended Systems, settting up the environment:

When I got my AMD64 and the latest 64-bit Windows beta's , the next thing I did was downloading the Software Development Kit (SDK) from the Microsoft site, hoping to find a Microsoft AMD64 compiler with it. Unfortunally after installing the entire SDK, there was no AMD64 compiler to be found anywhere in the SDK (Although the Setup program listed it as installable, it was simply not there after installation). It isn't on MSDN either so I had to find my luck elsewhere. Well, the Microsoft AMD64 compiler can be found in the Windows Driver Development Kit (DDK), but it's not free. You either have to order it, be fortunate enough to have access to a MSDN subscription or work for a large OEM.

Then I installed the DDK. By default it want to install on the disk with the most free diskspace, but you can install it (which takes a lot of time) on any disk you want. Just make sure you don't install it in the default location 'c:\program files\3790\WinHEC 2003', but in eg.: 'c:\winddk' instead.
You'll find out, when you have to manually change environment variables because they aren't properly set.

When you install the DDK, be careful you don't click 'Next >' to fast. This is because, the AMD64 build environment is not selected by default on the Driver Development Kit Component Groups window. Don't say I didn't warn you. ;-)

After installation I quickly wrote the following 'Hello world' program:
  #include "stdio.h"
  void main(void)
  {
    printf("Hello world!");
  }
to compile it for native 64-bit and give it a test run on my AMD64 machine. So I set the environment using the following command:
  c:\winddk\bin\setenv.bat c:\winddk fre amd64
After giving the test compile a try with:
  cl -O2 hello.cpp
I got a lot of errors on the screen. I quickly found out, this was due to environment variables set incorrectly. So I corrected them. You can download the modified version of 'setenv.bat' here.

Then I gave it a second try and now the output was as follows:
  cl -O2 hello.cpp
  Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 14.00.30318 for AMD64
  Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1984-2002. All rights reserved.
  
  hello.cpp
  Microsoft (R) Incremental Linker Version 8.00.30318
  Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
  
  /out:hello.exe
  hello.obj
This is what we wanted, being able to cross compile and link native 64-bit applications for Microsoft Windows for 64-bit Extended Systems.

WinDDK on Windows for 64-bit Extended Systems:
Microsoft said that compiling 64-bit directly on 64-bit Windows for the AMD64 is not supported. However, not supported, doesn't mean it doesn't work. If you're curious how to set this up then read on, else you can jump directly to the next page in this article, Setting up Visual Studio .NET 2003.

The procedure to accomplish this is very easy and straight forward. Execute the following steps.
  1. Copy the entire content of DDK installation base including sub-directories, eg.:'c:\winddk' to your Windows for 64-bit Extended Systems installation.
  2. Don't forget to change your %PATH% environment variable.
  3. Replace the 'setenv.bat' with my modified version (and rename it).
You can now compile and link 64-bit applications directly on Windows for 64-bit Extended Systems.




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Last update: 01/20/2004.