asm noob needs help compiling tutorial samples!?

Yes, you're right, my installation is messed up.The cmd prompt doesn't
work, it complains with a lot of errors which I'm pretty sure is
because every environment variable in the batch file doesn't exist on
my pc! And running the batch file doesn't do anything!!

But i don't really know why VS is messed up, especially since I've
repaired/re-installed VS about 7 times as directed by MS tech support
because SP1 just wouldn't install for some other unknown reasons. I'm
too lazy/annoyed to re-install again. I might try that later though!

I set a few vars that i thought necessary and the VS prompt works fine
now! I'm using nasm.exe first then cl.exe like you've mentioned.

Thanks
Gideon