Could someone please guide me how to control the directions
(up-down,left-right) without using the interrupt handler?

You need to hook the keyboard and process the scan codes.

This can ONLY be done on XP, and not Vista or Windows 7.

This is because low level support is slowly being out-moded by Windows.

For example, I cannot access the raw data on my hard drive under XP using assembly language. It just does not work.

Can I recommend a website I wrote called www.freshtings.com

This is a really good tutorial site for Windows XP Assembly Language programming.

You have the scan codes for up down left and right on site and maybe a tutorial you will need to find on how to 'hook' the keyboard under assembler.

It's pretty easy - also, check my code for a CLI on you tube - search for Assembly Language CLI on you tube and you'll see my source code for hooking and processing characters from the keyboard under XP!