What don't you understand?

Have you tried doing what it tells you to? It seems quite straightforward.

For the step 13, it tells Visual Studio to include these libraries for the link, because the functions you are using with SDL are implemented in these libraries. The librairies must be in the additional library directories (in Linker/General) or in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio (your number)\VC\lib.

i want understand what is the importance of these settings:
- detect 64-bit portability issues = No
- subsystem = Windows(/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS)

According to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yt4xw8fh.aspx :

The /Wp64 compiler option and __w64 keyword are deprecated and will be removed in a future version of the compiler. If you use the /Wp64 compiler option on the command line, the compiler issues Command-Line Warning D9035. Instead of using this option and keyword to detect 64-bit portability issues, use a Visual C++ compiler that targets a 64-bit platform. For more information, see 64-Bit Programming with Visual C++.

For your information, there are 2 types of processors: 32-bit and 64-bit. If you have a 32-bit processor, the compiler will produce processor instructions understandable for your 32-bit processor. (32 0 or 1) It's the same thing for 64-bit processors.

The Visual C++ Compiler will produce 64-bit instructions at compile time for your program if you select x64 as the target. If you select Win32, it will produce 32-bit instructions for your processor. Note that the /w64 flag (Detect 64-bit portability issues) on the command line is deprecated. So, it is recommended to only select the target (Win32 or x64) for your needs and not use the flag.

For the subsystem, check here for more details: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...8VS.71%29.aspx. Windows should be ok, but choosing an other choice will optimize the executable, for example POSIX, if you want to develop a multi-threaded application.