We'd be glad to hear reports of getting it working, though.

I'm building SQLite as part of the Fossil SCM for Windows XP on a regular basis, both with the latest MSVC¹, and with the tools from the Windows Driver Kit Version 7.1.0 (WDK7), which is still my preferred build environment for small Win32 programs on Windows 11.

Following is my patch against the SQLite core library and shell as included in Fossil by January 21, 2025:

(Note that parts of the patch just restore ANSI C-89 conformance by shoving variable declarations in front of statements; this is usually not necessary, as both SQlite and Fossil do this by policy.)

Index: extsrc/shell.c
==================================================================
--- extsrc/shell.c
+++ extsrc/shell.c
@@ -450,19 +450,21 @@
 /*
 ** Work-alike for fgets() from the standard C library.
 */
 char *sqlite3_fgets(char *buf, int sz, FILE *in){
   if( UseWtextForInput(in) ){
+#ifndef SQLITE_USE_STDIO_FOR_CONSOLE
+    DWORD nRead = 0;
+#endif
     /* When reading from the command-prompt in Windows, it is necessary
     ** to use _O_WTEXT input mode to read UTF-16 characters, then translate
     ** that into UTF-8.  Otherwise, non-ASCII characters all get translated
     ** into '?'.
     */
     wchar_t *b1 = sqlite3_malloc( sz*sizeof(wchar_t) );
     if( b1==0 ) return 0;
 #ifndef SQLITE_USE_STDIO_FOR_CONSOLE
-    DWORD nRead = 0;
     if( IsConsole(in)
      && ReadConsoleW(GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE), b1, sz, &nRead, 0)
     ){
       b1[nRead] = 0;
     }else
@@ -526,10 +528,13 @@
   if( !UseWtextForOutput(out) ){
     /* Writing to a file or other destination, just write bytes without
     ** any translation. */
     return fputs(z, out);
   }else{
+#ifndef SQLITE_STDIO_FOR_CONSOLE
+    DWORD nWr = 0;
+#endif
     /* One must use UTF16 in order to get unicode support when writing
     ** to the console on Windows.
     */
     int sz = (int)strlen(z);
     wchar_t *b1 = sqlite3_malloc( (sz+1)*sizeof(wchar_t) );
@@ -536,11 +541,10 @@
     if( b1==0 ) return 0;
     sz = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, z, sz, b1, sz);
     b1[sz] = 0;

 #ifndef SQLITE_STDIO_FOR_CONSOLE
-    DWORD nWr = 0;
     if( IsConsole(out)
       && WriteConsoleW(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE),b1,sz,&nWr,0)
     ){
       /* If writing to the console, then the WriteConsoleW() is all we
       ** need to do. */
@@ -1580,10 +1584,13 @@
 **
 ** Use the C-library printf() function to convert real value X into a string.
 ** Used for comparing the accuracy of SQLite's internal float-to-text conversion
 ** routines against the C-library.
 */
+#if _MSC_VER==1500
+#define snprintf _snprintf
+#endif
 static void shellDtostr(
   sqlite3_context *pCtx,
   int nVal,
   sqlite3_value **apVal
 ){
@@ -10190,11 +10197,13 @@
 SQLITE_EXTENSION_INIT1
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <assert.h>
 #ifndef SQLITE_NO_STDINT
+#if _MSC_VER>1500
 #  include <stdint.h>
+#endif
 #endif

 #include <zlib.h>

 /* When used as part of the CLI, the sqlite3_stdio.h module will have
@@ -16706,10 +16715,13 @@
 }

 /*
 ** File control method. For custom operations on an vfstrace-file.
 */
+#if _MSC_VER==1500
+#define strtoll _strtoi64
+#endif
 static int vfstraceFileControl(sqlite3_file *pFile, int op, void *pArg){
   vfstrace_file *p = (vfstrace_file *)pFile;
   vfstrace_info *pInfo = p->pInfo;
   int rc;
   char zBuf[100];
@@ -23887,10 +23899,16 @@
 **
 ** No bindings occur if this table does not exist.  The name of the table
 ** begins with "sqlite_" so that it will not collide with ordinary application
 ** tables.  The table must be in the TEMP schema.
 */
+/* NOTE: Also see the `test-inf-nan.c' test program. */
+#if _MSC_VER==1500
+#pragma warning(disable : 4756)
+#define INFINITY  ((float)(1e+300 * 1e+300))
+#define NAN       ((float)(INFINITY * 0.0F))
+#endif
 static void bind_prepared_stmt(ShellState *pArg, sqlite3_stmt *pStmt){
   int nVar;
   int i;
   int rc;
   sqlite3_stmt *pQ = 0;
@@ -23938,10 +23956,13 @@
     }
     sqlite3_reset(pQ);
   }
   sqlite3_finalize(pQ);
 }
+#if _MSC_VER==1500
+#pragma warning(default : 4756)
+#endif

 /*
 ** UTF8 box-drawing characters.  Imagine box lines like this:
 **
 **           1

Index: extsrc/sqlite3.c
==================================================================
--- extsrc/sqlite3.c
+++ extsrc/sqlite3.c
@@ -14267,11 +14267,16 @@
 ** the SQLITE_DISABLE_INTRINSIC define.
 */
 #if !defined(SQLITE_DISABLE_INTRINSIC)
 #  if defined(_MSC_VER) && _MSC_VER>=1400
 #    if !defined(_WIN32_WCE)
+#if _MSC_VER==1500
+#      include <stdlib.h>
+#      include <emmintrin.h>
+#else
 #      include <intrin.h>
+#endif
 #      pragma intrinsic(_byteswap_ushort)
 #      pragma intrinsic(_byteswap_ulong)
 #      pragma intrinsic(_byteswap_uint64)
 #      pragma intrinsic(_ReadWriteBarrier)
 #    else
@@ -24985,11 +24990,15 @@
 ** localtime_s().
 */
 #if !HAVE_LOCALTIME_R && !HAVE_LOCALTIME_S \
     && defined(_MSC_VER) && defined(_CRT_INSECURE_DEPRECATE)
 #undef  HAVE_LOCALTIME_S
+#if _MSC_VER==1500
+#define HAVE_LOCALTIME_S 0
+#else
 #define HAVE_LOCALTIME_S 1
+#endif
 #endif

 /*
 ** The following routine implements the rough equivalent of localtime_r()
 ** using whatever operating-system specific localtime facility that

1. ^{^} Building with the latest MSVC requires some hacks: as the MSVC runtime library increasingly makes use of Win32 API functions not available on Windows XP, I'm using the kernel32.lib import library from VC6 (or WDK7) and reimplement the few missing kernel32.dll functions in a XP-compatible way, along the lines InitializeCriticalSectionEx() → just use InitializeCriticalSection(), etc.