Verdict: An impressive technical marvel, but practically unusable.
You may find ISO files floating around forums (like BetaArchive or WinCity) or GitHub repositories (often based on the "Windows-XP-ARM64-Port" project). These are unauthorized, reverse-engineered ports created by hobbyists in recent years.
How is this possible?
The Review of the "Hobbyist ISO":
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5 – as a fan-made or experimental concept)
Verdict: Fascinating from a technical curiosity standpoint, but not practical for daily use. windows xp arm64 iso
During internal development for Windows 8 and Windows RT, Microsoft did create several unreleased builds of the Windows NT kernel for ARM. The closest relatives to "Windows XP ARM64" are:
Windows XP (released October 25, 2001) was built for x86 and x86-64 (AMD64) PC processors. Microsoft never produced an official ARM64 (AArch64) build of Windows XP. ARM64 architecture rose to prominence later (ARMv8-A / AArch64 introduced 2011), long after XP’s design and ecosystem. The Review of the "Hobbyist ISO":
Internal Microsoft documentation leaked over the years confirms that a project existed to port Windows XP to ARMv4 and ARMv5 architectures. Code-named internally as "NT/ARM," the project reached a working kernel and a command-line environment. However, it was cancelled around 2003 for three reasons:
Thus, no official Windows XP ARM64 ISO was ever pressed to a CD or uploaded to MSDN. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5 – as a fan-made or
Long before 64-bit ARM, Microsoft had Windows CE (Compact Embedded). While Windows CE looked like Windows XP on small screens, it was a completely different kernel. No standard win32.exe would run on it. This is not what people want.