Although not installed by default and not available in all editions (for more information, see
See
For information on creating 64-bit applications inside the Visual Studio development environment, see
The following list describes the various versions of cl.exe (the Visual C++ compiler):
- x86 on x86
-
Allows you to create output files for x86 machines. This version of cl.exe runs as a 32-bit process, native on an x86 machine and under WOW64 on a 64-bit Widows operating system.
- Itanium on x86 (Itanium cross-compiler)
-
Allows you to create output files for Itanium. This version of cl.exe runs as a 32-bit process, native on an x86 machine and under WOW64 on a 64-bit Widows operating system.
- x64 on x86 (x64 cross-compiler)
-
Allows you to create output files for x64. This version of cl.exe runs as a 32-bit process, native on an x86 machine and under WOW64 on a 64-bit Widows operating system.
- Itanium on Itanium
-
Allows you to create output files for Itanium. This version of cl.exe runs as a native process on an Itanium machine.
- x64 on x64
-
Allows you to create output files for x64. This version of cl.exe runs as a native process on an x64 machine.
When the 64-bit compilers are installed on a 64-bit Windows operating system, you will see command prompts for the various 64-bit native and cross compilers. To access these command prompts, go to Start and then All Programs. From the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 menu option, select Visual Studio Tools and then a command prompt.
Vcvarsall.bat
Any of the five compilers can be used from the command line by running the vcvarsall.bat batch file. By default, the full path for this file is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\Vcvarsall.bat.
(Another way to enable the Visual C++ toolset is to use vcvars32.bat, but this only enables the 32-bit compiler. For more information, see
If no arguments are provided, this batch file configures the necessary environment variables for using the x86, 32-bit compiler, but it can be used to configure any of the 64-bit compilers. The following table shows the supported arguments for vcvarsall.bat.
Vcvarsall.bat argument | Compiler | Host (either natively or using emulation) | Target architecture |
---|---|---|---|
"x86" (default) |
32-bit Native |
x86, x64, Itanium |
x86 |
"x86_amd64" |
x64 Cross |
X86, x64, Itanium |
x64 |
"x86_IPF" |
Itanium Cross |
X86, x64, Itanium |
Itanium |
"amd64" |
x64 Native |
x64 |
x64 |
"IPF" or "itanium" |
Itanium Native |
Itanium |
Itanium |