How to Easily Install Python on Surface Pro X / Windows ARM

1. Go to Python Releases for Windows | Python.org
2. For Python versions 3.8+, Download the 32-bit installer.
3. Run installer selecting whatever install options you would prefer.

That’s it.

It took me weeks to figured this out since, searching on google or bing returned me only information about building Python yourself. I did, at times, come across issue 33125, but it was in the context of “I saw this issue and thought I could build Python — these are the steps I took,” and I never read far enough down to get to two important parts:

1. “I just added a PR that will produce ARM64 releases (as embeddable, nuget and Microsoft Store packages). The only missing feature is tkinter (and everything that depends on it). For users who require that, I’d suggest grabbing the x86 installer from python.org which works fine (apart from some minor arithmetic and process management bugs in the Windows emulation layer)”
2. “New changeset by Steve Dower in branch ‘3.8’:
   bpo-33125: Add support for building and releasing Windows ARM64 packages (GH-17480)(commit link)

The only reason I ended up going back and looking closer is because I misread the “What’s New” section of Python doc which stated that Python is now buildable for Windows ARM devices as it being now installable.

Happily, it is actually installable too. Just not with the 64-bit version.

Edit Regarding Tcl/Tk (2021–06–12)

I found this to also be the case with Tcl/Tk; That I could install and use it without an issue by using an x86 installer.

Screenshot of TkDocs’s “A First (Real) Example” run on a Surface Pro X (Windows ARM)

I used Magicsplat since ActiveTel did not offer anything besides a 64-bit installer. BAWT also has a 32-bit installer, that I expect would work. However, I did not attempt to use it and cannot say for sure whether or not it would work.