On Windows XP the installation of arduino-esp32 fails with an error thrown by get.exe.

User JamesGKent found an explanation and partly solution.

Explanation:

The issue with esp32 on windows xp is get.exe, esptool.exe are basically a compiled version of the python scripts, they’ve been built with a new version of pyserial library that does not work on windows XP.

Solution:

Modify the platform.txt file so that it uses python like the Linux version does.
Note that you’ll need to have a version of python and the pyserial library installed that support XP (python <=3.4, pyserial 2.7). Changes in platform.txt:

line
 9: tools.esptool.cmd.windows=esptool.py
line 81: recipe.objcopy.hex.pattern=py 
"{tools.esptool.path}/{tools.esptool.cmd}" --chip esp32 elf2image 
--flash_mode "{build.flash_mode}" --flash_freq "{build.flash_freq}" 
--flash_size "{build.flash_size}" -o 
"{build.path}/{build.project_name}.bin" 
"{build.path}/{build.project_name}.elf"
line 98: tools.esptool.upload.pattern=py "{path}/{cmd}" --chip esp32 
--port "{serial.port}" --baud {upload.speed}  --before default_reset 
--after hard_reset write_flash -z --flash_mode {build.flash_mode} 
--flash_freq {build.flash_freq} --flash_size detect 0xe000 
"{runtime.platform.path}/tools/partitions/boot_app0.bin" 0x1000 
"{runtime.platform.path}/tools/sdk/bin/{build.boot}.bin" 0x10000 
"{build.path}/{build.project_name}.bin" 0x8000 
"{build.path}/{build.project_name}.partitions.bin"

This should let you compile at least, but doesn’t fix the missing mkspiffs…