How to Run Windows 11 ARM on a Raspberry Pi with an OpenClaw Desktop Agent

The community project that maintained Windows drivers for Raspberry Pi, worproject/RPi-Windows-Drivers, archived its GitHub repository on February 4, 2025, after shifting development focus to Rockchip RK3588 boards. The WoR project's FAQ now states that they no longer offer support for Raspberry Pi boards. Despite this, thousands of Pi owners still run Windows 11 ARM using the existing tools and the final driver release (version 0.17), which remains functional even without active development.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is the only current board worth using for this project. Its Cortex-A76 processor implements the ARMv8.2 instruction set, which satisfies the ARMv8.1 atomic instructions that recent Windows 11 builds require. The Raspberry Pi 4, by contrast, uses a Cortex-A72 (ARMv8.0) and is locked to Windows 11 build 25163, the last version before Microsoft began enforcing ARMv8.1 requirements. If you own a Pi 4, you can still install Windows, but you will not receive any future updates.

Microsoft has never officially supported Windows on Raspberry Pi hardware. The WoR project operates independently, and its FAQ explicitly states that it is "not affiliated with the Raspberry Pi Foundation or Microsoft Corporation." This means no official driver support, no guaranteed compatibility with Windows Update, and no warranty coverage. Running Windows on a Pi is a hobbyist and experimentation project, not a production deployment.

Most installation guides cover the setup process but stop at "boot to desktop." They do not address what happens in the following weeks: keeping the system functional when driver updates have stopped, backing up an installation that took an hour to create, or monitoring an unattended Windows Pi at a remote location. That ongoing management gap is where adding an OpenClaw agent to the setup provides practical value.

The wrong hardware combination will either fail to boot or perform so poorly that the project is not worth the effort. Here is what you need before starting.

Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB RAM

The Pi 5's ARMv8.2 instruction set passes the compatibility checks that Windows 11 requires. The 8GB model provides enough memory to run Windows with one or two lightweight applications open simultaneously. The 16GB Pi 5 variant has reported boot failures with the current WoR method, so stick with the 8GB model for now.

USB SSD (64GB minimum, 128GB recommended)

Windows 11 ARM occupies roughly 20GB for a base installation. Running from a microSD card is technically possible but extremely slow, with boot times stretching to several minutes. A USB 3.0 SSD drops first-boot time on a Pi 5 to under two minutes and makes the desktop responsive enough for light productivity. Budget NVMe drives connected through the official Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT provide even better random I/O performance for Windows' constant small reads and writes.

Separate microSD card for UEFI firmware

The Pi 5 cannot natively boot Windows. It needs UEFI firmware loaded onto a microSD card to initialize the hardware and hand control to the Windows bootloader on the SSD. Any card 1GB or larger works for this purpose.

USB WiFi adapter or Ethernet cable

Built-in WiFi and Bluetooth on the Pi 5 lack ARM64 Windows drivers. Use a USB WiFi adapter with an ARM64-compatible chipset (RTL8187-based adapters are a common choice), or connect via Ethernet, which works reliably through the UEFI driver stack.

27W USB-C power supply

The Pi 5 drawing power for an SSD, USB peripherals, and active cooling can exceed what a standard phone charger provides. The official Raspberry Pi 27W supply prevents undervoltage throttling that would slow down an already constrained system.

USB keyboard and mouse

Required for the initial Windows setup wizard. After setup, you can enable Remote Desktop Protocol and manage the Pi over the network instead.

The full process takes 45 to 60 minutes depending on internet speed and SSD write performance. You need a Windows, macOS, or Linux computer to prepare the installation media.

1. Download the Windows 11 ARM64 image. Use the WoR ESD Image Downloader to select the ARM64 architecture, your preferred edition (Home or Pro), and language. The tool retrieves the official Microsoft ESD file and verifies its integrity. Expect a download size of 4 to 5GB.

2. Flash Windows to the USB SSD. Open WoR Imager, select your SSD as the target drive, choose Raspberry Pi 5 as the device, and point it to the downloaded ESD file. Select the Windows edition and start the installation. This step writes the Windows partition structure and files to the SSD, which takes 15 to 30 minutes depending on drive speed.

3. Prepare the UEFI microSD card. Download the latest Raspberry Pi 5 UEFI firmware release from its GitHub repository. Format a microSD card as FAT32 and copy all UEFI files to the root directory.

4. Connect the hardware. Plug the USB SSD into one of the Pi 5's USB 3.0 ports (the blue connectors near the Ethernet jack). Insert the UEFI microSD card into the Pi's card slot. Connect your display via micro-HDMI, attach the keyboard and mouse, and plug in an Ethernet cable or USB WiFi adapter.

5. Configure UEFI settings. Power on the Pi. The UEFI firmware initializes and displays a configuration screen. Navigate to Device Manager and set the RAM limit to match your board. Confirm that the boot order prioritizes the USB SSD over the microSD card, then save settings.

6. Complete Windows setup. The Pi reboots into the Windows 11 ARM installer from the SSD. Follow the standard setup prompts for region, keyboard layout, network configuration (skip WiFi if unavailable), and account creation. The first boot takes the longest as Windows finalizes drivers and background configuration.

7. Install the community driver package. After reaching the desktop, download the RPi Windows Drivers package (version 0.17, the final release from the archived WoR project). Extract the archive and install drivers through Device Manager to enable USB 3.0 and other supported peripherals.

After completing these steps, you should have a functioning Windows 11 ARM desktop on your Pi 5. The next sections cover what to expect in daily use and how to keep the installation running over time.

Back up your Pi Windows installation automatically

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Set realistic expectations before investing time in customization and software installation.

What works acceptably

Native ARM64 applications run at near-full speed. This includes built-in Windows utilities, Microsoft Edge, and any application specifically compiled for ARM64. Remote Desktop Protocol works well and makes the Pi useful as a headless Windows server you can access from any machine on your network. File Explorer, Notepad, Settings, and Task Manager all perform as expected. USB storage devices, keyboards, mice, and Ethernet adapters function through the community driver stack.

What performs poorly

Applications that rely on x86 emulation run at a fraction of their normal speed. Microsoft's built-in compatibility layer translates x86 instructions on the fly, and the performance penalty is substantial. Office applications are usable for light editing but noticeably sluggish during complex operations. Browser tabs consume RAM quickly on the 8GB model, so keep fewer than ten open for responsive performance. Heavier software like Visual Studio or Photoshop is not practical on this hardware.

What does not work

Built-in WiFi and Bluetooth have no ARM64 drivers under Windows. Audio output through the Pi's 3.5mm jack or HDMI is not functional without a USB audio adapter. Hyper-V and WSL2 cannot be enabled. Activating the Virtual Machine Platform makes the system unbootable according to the WoR project documentation. Windows Update may install security patches, but major feature updates risk breaking the installation because Microsoft does not test against Pi hardware.

The Pi 4 faces an additional constraint: it cannot run Windows 11 builds newer than 25163 because its Cortex-A72 processor lacks the ARMv8.1 atomic instructions that Microsoft began requiring in later builds. The Pi 5's Cortex-A76 processor does not have this limitation.

The harder problem is not installing Windows on a Pi. It is keeping the installation running reliably over weeks and months, especially when the device sits in a closet, a workshop, or a remote office where nobody regularly checks on it.

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent framework that the Raspberry Pi Foundation has highlighted for edge AI deployments. It runs on Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) and requires minimal resources: 1GB of RAM, one CPU core, and 500MB of free disk space according to the official installation guide. The Pi handles scheduling, shell commands, and network requests locally while delegating reasoning to cloud-hosted LLMs like Claude, GPT-4, or Gemini.

Since OpenClaw requires a 64-bit Linux OS, it does not run directly on the Windows ARM installation. The practical approach is a companion Pi. A Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB of RAM running Raspberry Pi OS Lite costs under $50 and sits alongside the Windows Pi on the same local network. The companion Pi runs the OpenClaw agent, which manages the Windows machine over SSH, RDP, or network health checks.

Health monitoring

The agent periodically verifies that the Windows Pi responds to network pings and accepts RDP connections. If the Windows installation freezes or crashes (a real possibility with archived community drivers and no official Microsoft support), the agent can trigger a hardware reboot through a smart plug, a GPIO-controlled relay on the companion Pi, or Wake-on-LAN if your network supports it.

Backup automation

A Windows ARM installation that took an hour to build is tedious to recreate from scratch. The agent can schedule periodic disk image snapshots of the Windows SSD, compressing and storing them on the companion Pi's storage or uploading them to cloud storage. If the installation breaks after an accidental Windows Update or a driver conflict, restoring from a recent image takes minutes instead of restarting the entire WoR process.

Remote status reporting

When the Pi sits at a location you cannot easily visit, the agent acts as a communication bridge. OpenClaw supports integration with messaging channels like Telegram, Discord, and Slack, so the agent can relay health status, disk usage warnings, and desktop screenshots to wherever your team communicates. You get visibility into the remote machine without exposing RDP to the public internet or configuring a VPN.

Maintenance scheduling

Windows on a Pi requires periodic attention: clearing temp files to free limited SSD space, checking for driver conflicts after minor updates, and verifying that applications still function correctly. The agent can run these checks on a schedule and surface issues only when they need human attention, rather than requiring someone to manually RDP into the machine every few days.

The companion Pi generates backup images, health logs, and status reports. These files need somewhere durable to live beyond the companion Pi's own storage, which is typically a microSD card or small SSD with limited capacity.

Local NAS or external drive

The cheapest option with no recurring costs. Attach a USB drive to the companion Pi or use a NAS on the same network. Backups stay local for fast restores, but there is no remote access unless you configure a VPN or Tailscale tunnel. If the local hardware fails, your backups go with it.

Cloud object storage

Services like Amazon S3 or Backblaze B2 provide durable off-site storage at around $5 per month per terabyte. You handle authentication, upload scripting, and retention policies yourself. These services store raw files but do not index or search their contents, so finding a specific log entry from three weeks ago means downloading and manually inspecting files.

Fastio workspace

Built for agent-driven file workflows. The OpenClaw agent uploads backup images and logs to a shared workspace where files are automatically indexed by Intelligence Mode. Instead of grepping through downloaded log files, you can ask questions like "when did the Windows Pi last report a disk error?" and get answers with citations pointing to the specific log entry. The Business Trial includes generous storage and monthly credits during the trial with no credit card required.

Ownership transfer fits this setup well. The OpenClaw agent creates and manages the workspace autonomously, uploading backups and logs on schedule. When a human administrator needs to review something or take over management, they can claim ownership of the workspace while the agent retains access for continued uploads. Audit trails track every file upload and modification, which matters when you need to trace when a particular backup was created or which log entry triggered an alert.

For teams managing multiple Pi deployments across different locations, each Windows Pi and its companion agent can write to the same workspace. The shared workspace becomes a central view of fleet health, with the AI chat layer providing a natural-language interface to query status across all devices.