diff --git a/.env b/.env
index 44b9db8aef02..6051a4338739 100644
--- a/.env
+++ b/.env
@@ -98,5 +98,5 @@ VCPKG="9b965a116838c6cdcd36bca60d1b81b030c8ab8d"    # 2026.05.27 (not release, u
 # ci/docker/python-*-windows-*.dockerfile or the vcpkg config.
 # This is a workaround for our CI problem that "archery docker build" doesn't
 # use pulled built images in dev/tasks/python-wheels/github.windows.yml.
-PYTHON_WHEEL_WINDOWS_IMAGE_REVISION=2026-06-03
-PYTHON_WHEEL_WINDOWS_TEST_IMAGE_REVISION=2026-06-03
+PYTHON_WHEEL_WINDOWS_IMAGE_REVISION=2026-07-13
+PYTHON_WHEEL_WINDOWS_TEST_IMAGE_REVISION=2026-07-13
diff --git a/ci/conda_env_python.txt b/ci/conda_env_python.txt
index dd16d66b725d..a0dca4eac172 100644
--- a/ci/conda_env_python.txt
+++ b/ci/conda_env_python.txt
@@ -29,5 +29,5 @@ numpy>=1.16.6
 pytest
 pytest-faulthandler
 s3fs>=2023.10.0
-scikit-build-core
+scikit-build-core>=1.0
 setuptools_scm>=8
diff --git a/python/_build_backend/__init__.py b/python/_build_backend/__init__.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 6e5c328a69ff..000000000000
--- a/python/_build_backend/__init__.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,68 +0,0 @@
-# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
-# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
-# distributed with this work for additional information
-# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
-# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
-# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
-# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
-# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
-# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
-# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
-# specific language governing permissions and limitations
-# under the License.
-
-"""
-Build backend wrapper that resolves license symlinks before delegating
-to scikit-build-core.
-
-Arrow's LICENSE.txt and NOTICE.txt live at the repository root, one level
-above python/. They are symlinked into python/ so that license-files in
-pyproject.toml can reference them otherwise project metadata fails validation.
-This is done before any build backend is invoked that's why symlinks are necessary.
-But when building sdist tarballs symlinks are not copied and we end up with
-broken LICENSE.txt and NOTICE.txt.
-
-This custom build backend replaces the symlinks with actual file copies before
-scikit_build_core.build.build_sdist so that the sdist contains the real file content.
-The symlinks are restored afterwards to keep the git working tree clean.
-"""
-
-from contextlib import contextmanager
-import os
-from pathlib import Path
-import shutil
-import sys
-
-from scikit_build_core.build import *  # noqa: F401,F403
-from scikit_build_core.build import build_sdist as scikit_build_sdist
-
-LICENSE_FILES = ("LICENSE.txt", "NOTICE.txt")
-PYTHON_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
-
-
-@contextmanager
-def prepare_licenses():
-    # Temporarily copy the files so they are included on sdist.
-    for name in LICENSE_FILES:
-        parent_license = PYTHON_DIR.parent / name
-        pyarrow_license = PYTHON_DIR / name
-        pyarrow_license.unlink(missing_ok=True)
-        shutil.copy2(parent_license, pyarrow_license)
-    try:
-        yield
-    finally:
-        if sys.platform != "win32":
-            # Copy back the original symlinks so git status is clean.
-            for name in LICENSE_FILES:
-                filepath = PYTHON_DIR / name
-                os.unlink(filepath)
-                os.symlink(f"../{name}", filepath)
-
-
-def build_sdist(sdist_directory, config_settings=None):
-    with prepare_licenses():
-        return scikit_build_sdist(sdist_directory, config_settings)
diff --git a/python/pyproject.toml b/python/pyproject.toml
index 86c907a3db6f..ab6f2e6061c1 100644
--- a/python/pyproject.toml
+++ b/python/pyproject.toml
@@ -17,17 +17,14 @@
 
 [build-system]
 requires = [
-    "scikit-build-core",
+    "scikit-build-core >= 1.0",
     "cython >= 3.1",
     # Needed for build-time stub docstring extraction
     "libcst>=1.8.6",
     "numpy>=1.25",
     "setuptools_scm[toml]>=8",
 ]
-# We use a really simple build backend wrapper over scikit-build-core
-# to solve licenses to work around links not being included in sdists.
-build-backend = "_build_backend"
-backend-path = ["."]
+build-backend = "scikit_build_core.build"
 
 [project]
 name = "pyarrow"
@@ -94,6 +91,10 @@ wheel.install-dir = "pyarrow"
 # in-tree for CI type-checking.
 wheel.exclude = ["pyarrow/py.typed"]
 
+[tool.scikit-build.sdist.force-include]
+"../LICENSE.txt" = "LICENSE.txt"
+"../NOTICE.txt" = "NOTICE.txt"
+
 [tool.scikit-build.cmake.define]
 PYARROW_BUNDLE_ARROW_CPP = {env = "PYARROW_BUNDLE_ARROW_CPP", default = "OFF"}
 PYARROW_BUNDLE_CYTHON_CPP = {env = "PYARROW_BUNDLE_CYTHON_CPP", default = "OFF"}
diff --git a/python/requirements-build.txt b/python/requirements-build.txt
index fdd3e68a1b16..2ed711613b41 100644
--- a/python/requirements-build.txt
+++ b/python/requirements-build.txt
@@ -2,5 +2,5 @@ build
 cython>=3.1
 libcst>=1.8.6
 numpy>=1.25
-scikit-build-core
+scikit-build-core>=1.0
 setuptools_scm>=8
diff --git a/python/requirements-wheel-build.txt b/python/requirements-wheel-build.txt
index a3ac13967729..3d1d1c9b8db8 100644
--- a/python/requirements-wheel-build.txt
+++ b/python/requirements-wheel-build.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@ cython>=3.1
 # Needed for build-time stub docstring extraction
 libcst>=1.8.6
 numpy>=2.0.0
-scikit-build-core
+scikit-build-core>=1.0
 setuptools_scm
 wheel