Q:

Nothing happens when program runs (and no Window is created)

As of recent, I am very very frustrated with SDL2. Out of options here, so looking from some help from someone knowledgeable. I'm trying to get this darn thing working on Windows 8.1.
I had no problems using the first SDL on Windows 7 which went by with a breeze. However, SDL2 is just not the same case.
I'm following the tutorials on "http://lazyfoo.net/tutorials/SDL/01_hello_SDL/windows/codeblocks/index.php" using the most recently updated codeblocks + minGW32 release. I've also tried it on Orwell Dev C++ + minGW32.
However, something very very odd is happening, something I've never before seen in programming. My compiler is not giving me any errors. However, when the program runs, nothing happens. A window should be created and delayed for a few seconds. I've also tried the part 2 tutorial to show an image, and again, nothing happens. 

I've made sure that neither program is blocked by Windows Firewall and ran the program and the .exe as an administrator.
The compiler gives no errors.
SDL2.dll is in the folder of the .exe.
I've downloaded SDL2.0.3 from the link on the website and downloaded and applied the fix for that one wonky .h file that gives compiler
errors in SDL2.0.3 but not SDL2.0.0 downloaded at
https://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/raw-file/e217ed463f25/include/SDL_platform.h
I've added the lib and include folder in the Compiler Options for SDL2.0.3.
I've added the linker string: -lmingw32 -lSDL2main -lSDL2   (also tried -lmingw32 -lSDL2 -lSDL2main and like 10 other things found on
forums). 
I've tried using both the Debug and the Release compilers.
I've tried building the program as a GUI application and a Console application. In SDL1, I compiled as a GUI application. In SDL2, this
simply compiles, but when ran, it does absolutely nothing. When ran
as a console application, a console windows pops up, the program
stops responding, and then the console shows Process exited after
6.357 seconds with return value 255.

I've followed all instructions exactly using both Code::Blocks and then Dev C++ IDE and I still am not getting anything, same results. Been working at and googling this for 2 days. What in god's name is happening to cause me all this stress?
If you have any suggestions or have experienced this tragedy, please help! T.T
The code is very basic as shown:
//Using SDL and standard IO
#include <SDL.h>
#include <stdio.h>

//Screen dimension constants
const int SCREEN_WIDTH = 640;
const int SCREEN_HEIGHT = 480;

int main( int argc, char* args[] )
{
    //The window we'll be rendering to
    SDL_Window* window = NULL;

    //The surface contained by the window
    SDL_Surface* screenSurface = NULL;

    //Initialize SDL
    if( SDL_Init( SDL_INIT_VIDEO ) < 0 )
    {
        printf( "SDL could not initialize! SDL_Error: %s\n", SDL_GetError() );
    }
    else
    {
        //Create window
        window = SDL_CreateWindow( "SDL Tutorial", SDL_WINDOWPOS_UNDEFINED, SDL_WINDOWPOS_UNDEFINED, SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN );
        if( window == NULL )
        {
            printf( "Window could not be created! SDL_Error: %s\n", SDL_GetError() );
        }
        else
        {
            //Get window surface
            screenSurface = SDL_GetWindowSurface( window );

            //Fill the surface white
            SDL_FillRect( screenSurface, NULL, SDL_MapRGB( screenSurface->format, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF ) );

            //Update the surface
            SDL_UpdateWindowSurface( window );

            //Wait two seconds
            SDL_Delay( 2000 );
        }
    }

    //Destroy window
    SDL_DestroyWindow( window );

    //Quit SDL subsystems
    SDL_Quit();

    return 0;
}

This is the compiler output from Dev C++:
Compiling Project Changes...
--------
- Project File: C:\Users\Giovanni\Desktop\test\GioGame\GioGame.dev
- Compiler Name: MinGW GCC 4.8.1 32-bit Debug

Building makefile...
--------
- Filename: C:\Users\Giovanni\Desktop\test\GioGame\Makefile.win
- Output File: C:\Users\Giovanni\Desktop\test\GioGame\GioGame.exe

Processing makefile...
--------
- Makefile Processor: C:\Program Files (x86)\Dev-Cpp\MinGW32\bin\mingw32-make.exe
- Command: mingw32-make.exe -f "C:\Users\Giovanni\Desktop\test\GioGame\Makefile.win" all

g++.exe -c 01_hello_SDL.cpp -o 01_hello_SDL.o -I"C:/Program Files (x86)/Dev-Cpp/MinGW32/include" -I"C:/Program Files (x86)/Dev-Cpp/MinGW32/mingw32/include" -I"C:/Program Files (x86)/Dev-Cpp/MinGW32/lib/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/include" -I"C:/Program Files (x86)/Dev-Cpp/MinGW32/lib/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/include/c++" -I"C:/Users/Giovanni/Desktop/test/SDL2.0.3/include/SDL2" -g3

g++.exe 01_hello_SDL.o -o GioGame.exe -L"C:/Program Files (x86)/Dev-Cpp/MinGW32/lib" -L"C:/Program Files (x86)/Dev-Cpp/MinGW32/mingw32/lib" -L"C:/Users/Giovanni/Desktop/test/SDL2.0.3/lib" -static-libstdc++ -static-libgcc -lmingw32 -lSDL2main -lSDL2 -g3

Compilation Results...
--------
- Errors: 0
- Warnings: 0
- Output Size: 143.41796875 KiB
- Compilation Time: 2.86s

Finally solved. As I had a feeling, it was some problem with Windows or Windows 8.1 just shafting me for fun. I was very careful and redownloaded SDL2.0.3 and reapplied that patch thing for SDL_platform.h.
THEN I completely uninstalled ALL of the IDEs that I tried, reinstalled Dev C++ in Windows 7 compatibility mode AS an administrator ON the desktop (ie not in Program Files x86).
Then, I setup everything again and bam it worked.
Could be a problem with Windows 8.1 administrator BS shenanigans, or compatibility mode, or a corrupt download earlier, or the SDL I was using OR even the fact that it was installed to program files x86 which has a space in the file path and limited rights because windows.
So problem: because windows.

A:

The issue is that you are never letting windows enter the event-loop. The tutorial you are reading from assumes that the window will just show without ever handling the events, which will not happen on all platforms.
Just doing SDL_Delay( 2000 ); will just sleep for 2 seconds, but it will not let the thread handle events in the meantime.
If you replace that one line with 
        SDL_Event e;
        bool quit=false;
        while(!quit)
        {
            while( SDL_PollEvent( &e ) != 0 )
            {
                if( e.type == SDL_QUIT )
                {
                    quit = true;
                }
            }
        }

It will work fine (although it's busy waiting, but you can care about that later)

