efi-msvc-edk2

UEFI application template for Visual Studio using edk2 and MSVC.

Build UEFI applications directly from Visual Studio without needing the edk2 build system for your own code.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2022 with C++ workload
• edk2 compiled at C:\edk2 (RELEASE, X64, VS2022)
• edk2 libraries copied to C:\edk2\build_lib
• QEMU + OVMF for testing (optional)

For the full edk2 setup guide, refer to the original project.

Building

1. Open efi-msvc-edk2.sln in Visual Studio.
2. Set configuration to Release | x64.
3. Build the solution.
4. Output: x64\Release\efi-msvc-edk2.efi

Testing with QEMU

mkdir C:\uefi_disk\EFI\BOOT
copy x64\Release\efi-msvc-edk2.efi C:\uefi_disk\EFI\BOOT\
qemu-system-x86_64 -bios "C:\edk2\Build\OvmfX64\RELEASE_VS2022\FV\OVMF.fd" -net none -hda fat:rw:C:\uefi_disk

In the UEFI Shell:

fs0:
efi-msvc-edk2.efi

Adding libraries

To use additional edk2 libraries (e.g. UefiShellLib, UefiHiiServicesLib):

1. Add the .lib to Linker > Additional Dependencies in project settings.
2. Add the library constructor to ProcessLibraryConstructorList in efi/AutoGen.c.
3. Add any missing PCD definitions and GUIDs to the AutoGen files.

Project structure

efi-msvc-edk2/
├── efi-msvc-edk2.sln
├── efi-msvc-edk2.vcxproj
├── efi-msvc-edk2.vcxproj.filters
├── efi-msvc-edk2.vcxproj.user
├── efi/
│   ├── AutoGen.c
│   ├── AutoGen.h
│   └── ShellStrDefs.h
└── src/
    └── main.c

Credits

Based on and inspired by edk2-visualstudio by 0xGREG, which itself was inspired by Alex Ionescu's VisualUefi.

License

MIT