I have been using the Windows Subsystem instead of the console for my sfml projects, and I just figured out why my static linking wasn't working (I know its sad :) ). But, I It only works with a console though,
When I try to use a window I get:
1>MSVCRT.lib(crtexew.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _WinMain@16
If you chose to create a "Windows application" project, then the entry point of your code has to be the "WinMain" function instead of "main". Since it's Windows specific, and your code would therefore not compile on Linux or Mac OS X, SFML provides a way to keep a standard "main" entry point in this case: link your project to the sfml-main module ("sfml-main-d.lib" in Debug, "sfml-main.lib" in Release), the same way you linked sfml-graphics, sfml-window and sfml-system.