Before you build the library, make sure the environment variables that Visual C++ needs are set up. Recent versions of the Visual
Studio installer put a special CMD.EXE shortcut in the Start menu
in the same folder as the IDE shortcuts; run this shortcut to
get a command prompt with the variables all set up. The older
way (which still works) is to run the vcvars32 batch file that
comes with the tools. (It may not be in your PATH by default,
so you might have to search your hard drive for it.)
To create the Makefiles, say "makemake vc" in the project's root
directory. You only have to do this once, unless you change
Makefile.base or Makefile.vc. This also starts building the
library and the examples.