Hi, I’m Paul Thurrott. You may remember me from such web sites as Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows and Windows IT Pro, and from podcasts like Windows Weekly and What the Tech. And with that Simpsons reference out of the way, I’d like to welcome you to my new web site, thurrott.com. If you enjoyed the goings-on at the SuperSite, you’re going to feel right at home here.
Thurrott.com is a partnership between Blue Whale Web—which also publishes the highly-respected Petri IT Knowledgebase—and myself. Leaving my previous employer was a difficult decision. But the wonderful team of people at Blue Whale Web, led by Managing Partner George Coll, made this next step very easy.
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If you were a fan of the SuperSite, no worries: Thurrott.com will be similar, and I will continue to focus largely on Microsoft, its products and services, and on consumer technology in general. I will be expanding my coverage a bit to include some more technical topics such as building and upgrading PCs, software development, and more, but that will be phased in after we work to get this new site up and running.
And the “we” there is very important. My voice, my enthusiasm for technology, and my desire to get to the truth of things all remain unchanged. But Thurrott.com is indeed a partnership, and while many have congratulated me for striking out on my own, the truth is that I couldn’t—and don’t want to—do this by myself. I’ve been lucky in life in a variety of ways, but I’ve been particularly lucky in this case.
Blue Whale Web is a small team of very dedicated people who are … just awesome. Watching them get this site up and running quickly has been incredible, and a whirlwind compared to the slow-moving corporate behemoth to which I was previously shackled. I’m in good hands here. We all are.
So here’s what’s happening.
This site is brand new, it still has that new car smell, and there are content holes and kinks that will need to get worked out. We’re using this initial soft-launch long weekend to get some of those issues fixed. But do let me know if you see something particularly egregious.
In addition to posting to thurrott.com regularly, I will also be posting news stories to Petri.com five days a week. This means I get to work alongside Petri’s esteemed cadre of authors—Daniel Petri, Aidan Finn, Jeff Hicks, Russell Smith, and many others—as well as editors like Jeff James and Blair Greenwood, both of whom I’ve worked with in the past. I also want to thank my new Blue Whale Web teammates Tim Speciale, Maria Plasterer, Sean McCabe, and Cindy Roth-Wurster for helping make this site a reality so quickly. You are all amazing.
Here on thurrott.com, the content will be driven by what you want to see. As I noted previously, I have some ideas for the future, and I previously asked my podcast listeners for advice about the types of articles and series of articles they’d like to see. The feedback so far has been incredible, but I’d like to extend this offer to everyone reading the site. So please, use the form on the Contact Paul page to send me any feedback about the site, and any thoughts about what you’d like to see.
One thing I’m particularly excited about is that this site is based on WordPress, so I’ll be able to improve it far more quickly over time. But even in this initial state, thurrott.com offers much bigger and higher-quality images (with lightboxing coming soon), simpler sharing, and, much better commenting: while I had to manually moderate comments at my previous site, we’re using Disqus here. How delightfully modern.
So take a look around. Tell me what you like, and what you don’t like. Please do subscribe to the RSS feed, and sign up for my Thurrott Daily email newsletter, which will arrive via email Monday through Friday (starting Tuesday, as this Monday is a holiday). And what the heck, follow me on Twitter, and listen in on both Windows Weekly and What the Tech.
I’m so excited to be a part of this site launch. It’s scary and different and new, but the one thing I am sure of is that this is the right team of people to make it work.
Thanks for reading,
Paul Thurrott
January 2015
LivelyBanter
Looking forward to reading your content!
Farshad
Congrats!
jack frost
Love the site congrats Paul.
Patrick Sullivan
I like this site much better. I can finally look at it on my phone and not cringe.
Manzoor E Elahi
I was thinking the exact same thing! Images are rendering perfectly here.
Sam
it’s very Windows Phone friendly, thanks Paul
Meg
This new site is not very Windows tablet/touch friendly. It is not possible to scroll/swipe in the news flash area, and social links overlay the text while reading articles. I’m using Surface with Modern IE11.
Info Dave
I have the same problem on a competitor’s device. If you move the content over just a scootch, it will look, and read, much better.
darwiniandude
Works fine here on iOS. Pinch zoom is disabled though which I don’t like, but if any images can be tapped and then zoomed that’s ok.
Robbiegod
Yeah this site looks great on my icon! Good luck Paul!
BarrySilver
Congrats Paul! Looking forward to your salient commentary next week. Break a leg!
Drewidian
Congratulations on your new site!
LumiaAndMe
Congratulations Sir. 🙂
mtmjr90
Congrats! Looking forward to watching the site grow 🙂
Denis Padua
I love new site.
David Dudovitz
Congratulations!
aztekman
OMG. so amazing!
Will it be full of Advertisements?
Christian Gäng
Hopefully not full of useless comments like yours.
aztekman
Excellent Post, your mom is so proud.
Christian Gäng
Same goes for your mom. This site just started and you are all negative.
aztekman
Negative? Seriously? That is what you got from my post?
Paul appreciates sarcasm.
My first impression had me seeing four advertisements/sponsors on each page.
Don’t you think he would love to know that it is an impression before he goes live?
Christian Gäng
Little advise for the future: Use some smilies on your posts. I dont want this site to turn into some regulare nerds site.
aztekman
Thanks
A little advice, don’t get so adversarial over something that you can easily misconstrue.
BTW, did Paul ask you to be a moderator?
Christian Gäng
No, he didnt. But I know other sites and I hope just what happens there isnt happening here.
CyberAngel
You just managed to ruin this site for me…
MODERATORS!!!
Ban both forever!
aztekman
both? what did I do?
Info Dave
Personal attacks, extended over multiple messages, detracts from the constructive comments of others.
aztekman
again, what did I do? What part of any of my posts was a personal attack?
Paul Thurrott
We’re all good. All feedback is welcome.
Paul Thurrott
I’d like to scale that back as possible. Right now we’re just trying to figure it out.
tiwahu
Where can I get one of those mugs?
dansus
Glad to see your using Disqus for comments.
abdhoms
Yep, now I know I’ll be visiting here very often.
Christian Gäng
Sadly disqus is very limited in what you can do as a user
scottcarmichael
At least you can edit. And see your stuff posted immediately.
Info Dave
And I was automatically signed in. We’re you all?
Ryan Spooner
What more do you need? You can post and edit comments, and reply to others.
Christian Gäng
Example: Put someone on ignore.
Mike Kaz
Looks great. Good luck!
Guest
Nevermind.
rokuvaan
Love the new site, Congrats!! The Force will be with you, always…
Air_Horn
Congratulations Paul!
Very exciting time for you, and your readers!
Lauren Nanton
Congratulations, Paul. Wishing you the best with this, the next chapter.
boggy4062
Congratulations Paul
tinkertoytech
Congrats on the new site!
As for what I want to see, more of the same from the past and the new sruff, you’ll amaze us I’m sure!
-TTT
Bucha Ajmal
congratulations paul…wish you the best…
Christian Gäng
Hello Paul, congratulationsfor your new site. Keep up the good work!
Xabi Granja
Woohoo! Very excited for you and the new site Paul! So far it renders perfectly on my 635. Kudos for ditching Times New Roman from Supersite and adopting a cleartype font – seems like Calibri? It’s MUCH easier on the eyes!
wp8winRTftw
Congrats and looking forward to the future.
Ryan
I’m personally quite happy this site is using Disqus 😉
abdhoms
Likewise 🙂
Ryan
I did notice the comment counts aren’t working. This is a common issue with some WordPress themes. If anyone from your team needs help just reach out: [email protected]
Cosmin Tataru
Ryan, can others reach out to you as well ? I have a similar website with the Newspaper WordPress theme and I will also contact TagDiv but I need help from Disqus as well.
Patrick Ryan
I have mixed feelings about Disqus. I frequent IGN and Wired, who also use Disqus, and it can be quit a mess. Though most of the problems I can think of off the top of my head happen on IGN, so maybe it’s the way they’re implementing it and not necessarily Disqus itself.
QuarterSwede
It has a nasty bug in mobile Safari where if you drag to select text it won’t let you type again. It’s super annoying and continues even if you refresh the page. I logged the issue with them months ago and it still persists.
Patrick Ryan
I’ve noticed on desktops that sometimes navigating from the notifications to a comment you made loads the mobile version of the article, which on IGN doesn’t include the comments section. You have to click a link to go to the comments section which of course doesn’t bring you to your comment, it just loads the top of the comments per usual.
Ryan
What kinds of problems do you encounter yourself? IGN does have a special setup where you have to log in with an IGN account to comment, which creates a unique set of potential issues.
Patrick Ryan
The weirdest one, which seems to have gone away recently, was that no matter what it always reported that I had two notifications, but only on IGN. When on Wired those two notifications weren’t there.
Sometimes a post won’t appear right away and it looks like you just never made it to begin with. I think it only happens when you attach something like a photo or video or there’s a link in the comment. I understand that IGN probably has it setup so they can screen those types of things first, but it would be nice if it would at least tell you that the post was submitted for review, like on Winsupersite or Gizmodo. I’m also not entirely sure that screening is the reason they don’t appear right away, as porn isn’t that uncommon to come across on IGN and you’d think a screener would stop that.
Guest
Hi, Paul. I happened to be up past my bed time so I couldn’t resist a peek here. Great impression of the new site as I view it on my 27 inch monitor on my Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9901. I’ll have to check it out on my windows phone where I already pinned your site as a tile. LOL Anyhow, congrats and talk to you again soon. – Shawn
Arraidsiren
Hi, Paul. I happened to be up past my bed time so I couldn’t resist a peek here. Great impression of the new site as I view it on my 27 inch monitor on my Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9901. I’ll have to check it out on my windows phone where I already pinned your site as a tile. LOL I can already tell that I’ll enjoy this site even more as I’ll see your love of all things consumer and even pc enthusiast come back forward. It’s been a while since I built a PC so it’ll be interesting to check out your posts on that. Anyhow, congrats and talk to you again soon. – Shawn
abdhoms
Congrats Paul! Looking forward for great content.
George Roberts
Congrats on the new site, Paul!
matt1125
So excited for this new site. It feels great so far. My favorite thing from supersite was always your what I use articles.
Alex Lichtenhan
Looking good. Congratulations!
Thomas
Fantastic! Looking forward to years more of excellent coverage.
SteveL
Go get ’em Paul!! Terrific launch!!
Paul Thurrott
Thanks everyone!
scottcarmichael
So…will this site be where you finally start distancing yourself from MS-centric discussion? I mean, I understand you sorta have to talk MS stuff for the next couple of years to retain/keep building up your brand…but I think the writing on the wall is there when it comes to Microsoft’s consumer-facing efforts (they’re fading fast). Whatever you do/talk about, you have a fan here!
Clamdigger63
What a load of waffle. The majority here want Paul to talk about Microsoft products because that is what we like.
If you don’t like Microsoft products you’re not going to enjoy it here.
elitemike
If the writing is on the wall you must be dyslexic. They are finally focusing on the consumer and it’s gaining momentum.
Paul Thurrott
So I am very interested in Microsoft’s consumer products and services and will continue to cover that stuff as a primary focus. But I won’t ignore the competition either.
nexus1216
Congrats Paul, love the new site!!!
peterh_oz
Congratulations Paul and good luck from here in Oz
Tom Roughley
Next phase of success Paul, congratulations love the new design and your expanded topics
Jake Bloo
Simpsons “reference.”
Mike
Congrats Paul. Site looks great.
Warren
Hi, Paul, this seems like as a good time as any to offer my thanks for the many years of content you’ve contributed to the tech world. I’ve been reading the SuperSite since summer 1999, and it’s amazing to think back over how much has happened since those “NT 5.0 Workstation Beta” days, and for those of us who’ve built a career out of Windows, it’s been a pretty good run.
Where-ever you decide to take your new site in terms of content, I hope you’ll keep one foot firmly planted in the “future of Windows” world and continue offering up commentary and opinions. Your writing is always good, but that’s where I think you’re at your very best. All the best with the new site.
Chiranjeeb Jena
“page to send MY any feedback about the site”
Correction: Me
Paul Thurrott
Fixed, thanks!
Greg Vb
I like the new website and logo. The design has a clean, flat, and modern look. (All Good!) I wish you the best of luck on your new chapter and look forward to following you!
John Couch
I really like the layout of the new site. As another commenter mentioned, it’s much easier to read (desktop or phone). I especially like the “go home” button in the bottom right corner. Every site should have one! Look forward to the new content and ideas.
RealDarrenCohen
Disqus! Congrats Paul on the adventure. You are the product, and you were the reason people went to your old site. They will follow you here as you continue to be a fair critic, user, and reporter of all things tech. As someone who enjoys and uses snark and sarcasm in my daily life (a little much for some), I enjoy your writing style. For your sake I am glad to see the CMS you chose.
David Hanson
Disqus commenting! Sold!
Congrats on your new start Paul
Luis Martinez
Site looks good so far Paul! Excited for the new move!
alaskanjackson
Just echoing some other posts, its renders perfectly on my 830 and SP. Coffee is on me if you’re ever in Ketchikan.
b4rtw
Greta new site Paul. Can’t wait to see what else you have in store for us.
Furthermore, I think a lot of people, besides myself, will be very happy with Disqus integration.
Again, well done!
Chiranjeeb Jena
Disqus for Life <3
Roelof
Congratulations with the new site. I suppose there will be a Thurrott windows phone app with push notification soon?
ryanlowdermilk
Boom! This site is better than going 56-0 in CoD. Well done, team!
Paul Thurrott
Well, let’s not get crazy. 🙂 Thanks.
blackhawk556
Wow I can actually comment on articles now without any issues because of disqus. Thanks Paul!
JesperJuel
Congratulations on the new site. I think this is going to be great.
Jordan North
Congratulations Paul on the new site. Been following you since the Windows 7 era. I’m extremely grateful for your honest reviews and opinions you share daily. Nice to have a real technology enthusiast who sees the differences out there and can so eloquently write based on facts because of walking the walk.
Thanks again for all of the Windows 8 coverage and especially the Windows Phone reviews and books. A true treasure
Guest
Paul I love the new site.
Is there a way to hide the “social” bar on the mobile version? It’s taking too much space on small phones.
Paul Thurrott
Yeah I’m curious about that as well. A lot of people are having issues with this, I suspect we will do something quickly.
William Wade
Paul I love the new site.
Is there a way to hide the “social” bar on the mobile version? It’s taking too much space on small phones.
(sry for the double post)
RTFAQ
I am so in. Let’s go!
I’m so glad I can finally read this comfortably on mobile.
HelloLudger
Love your new site. Finally not only square pictures and you’re using Disqus.
I wonder if you do some A/B testing with this social toolbar. My guess is that it doesn’t improve the engagement at all.
Paul Thurrott
Yep. This will definitely be fixed.
TraderGary
Nicely done! And it works on my phone and tablet!
Tera Ezeri
Wow! A WordPress theme that works well in Windows Phone. I’m rather impressed. Glad to see you’re doing something new, and I can’t wait to see where you take this site.
scottmoyse
I could never be arsed to comment on your old site. Now you have Disqus it’s a lot more probable. Nice looking site. Good luck.
pbeyer83
Congratulations on the new site, Paul. I’m an old SuperSite reader, and I’m looking forward to following you here on your new site. It looks very nice and I’m glad to see that there’s already a lot of content to dive into.
I’ll spend my weekend on Thurrott.com with a nice spot on the couch, my Surface and a huge beverage (in my case it’ll have to be Coke Zero, since I haven’t gotten around to learning how to drink coffee yet…)
Appymouse
Congratulations Paul Godspeed to you and your team. We like this site better. Display very well on Lumia 930.
RyanUK
Great upgrade Paul. Well done! Will be reading your content even more now. Think others have mentioned this but thought I would to, the social bar on phone gets in the way and no way to remove it. Appreciate it is the soft launch. Thanks for all you have done so far and keep up the great work
Adam Chaney
Nice Job. Changing jobs is always scary. At least you got to do it on your terms.
jskardzius
Well done, Paul. Hopefully the “new car smell” does not fade too soon, and like Microsoft , you have found the accelerator pedal that you needed to reach your goals.
Jeffrey
congrats, paul. I’ve only recently joined in the discussion, but I’ve been a major follower since the xp days. just congrats. this seems like a great, bold leap. you’ll do great
johala02
Nice new site. Good luck.
Iain Magee
Nice! 2015 looks to be shaping up as another interesting year in tech generally, and a big one for MS in particular, so looking forward to your commentary and analysis. These days your site is one of a handful of places I go when a big story breaks in order to find out what the *actual* story is! Thanks.
Steve Huffer
Best of luck with the new site.
Mike Cramer
Congratulations on a fresh start, Paul. I see you’ve been busy pounding out all sorts of content. Nice.
BigBernard
Will you be banning people for daring to have a different opinion to you just like you did on the old site?
Info Dave
I had the same problem, but let’s give Paul and Blue Whale a chance, OK? This is completely different.
Paul Thurrott
I never once banned anyone for having a different opinion. I only banned for abuse.
Mike Risner
Congrats on your big decision and the new site. Working in a more nimble organization will have distinct advantages. All the best to you and your family!
Paloma_Pastiche
The social bar at the bottom appears to obscure
janper
Hello Paul,
congrats for the launch. Some stuff I’ve noticed:
– will one be able to log in with MS account? (For commenting.)
– comment count on the main page always shows 0 for every article, that’s probably a bug.
Paul Thurrott
Comment count bug is in the queue. I will have to ask about MS account access.
fearful1138
Nice. Having trouble logging in with Discus on my Dev Preview 930 though.
Johan Nilsson
Looking good! A bit confusing with two “Latest articles” sections on the front page that displays different articles, but maybe it will get sorted with time. I bet your comments-section will get loads of more comments now, thats great. And I like the new logo! (Even if that cup reminds me a little bit of Java) 🙂
Paul Thurrott
That will be fixed. I raised this issue as well, thanks!
Steve Richards
On my iPad im finding the adverts pretty overwhelming, but I will be using Instapaper & RSS so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue, good luck!
Robert Candelori
The new site is excellent Paul – great work
Michael
great site Mr Paul, I love it!
well done, and best wishes for you.
can’t wait to read more and more of your awesome articles 🙂
David Walker
congratulations Paul on new site lots to look forward to with site and windows 10 of course
Bill Reilly
Good luck with the new site, Paul… I hope it proves to be a success for you!
Guest
Amazing site indeed, well done Paul!
can’t wait to thrill us with your awesome contents as usual.
best wishes and best regards for you 🙂
Paul
Congratulations Paul. Good luck.
ViperSeed
To another 15 years of excellent coverage.
ken43708
Love the new site. It feels like finding old friends at a new coffeeshop. Paul, add updating your G+ profile and the brief bio of yourself on Windows Weekly’s site to reflect your new home.
Paul Thurrott
Doh. Thanks!
mark_s_taylor
Signed up here. Looking forward to it.
Doug Miannay
Very excited to see you making the break and heading in this new direction, Paul. Have been a follower for many years and check-in regularly to catch your thoughts on the latest Microsoft/technology happenings. The new site looks fresh and clean… can’t wait for it to start filling up with content.
jonny_utah
The new site is awesome! I am an everyday reader, keep the articles coming Paul!
Stephen Cornish
Welcome Paul. Shall be tuning in as normal 🙂
efjay
Nice work, good luck!
Commodore_Schmidlapp
Meh.
Info Dave
That was constructive.
Paul Thurrott
There is no bad feedback. 🙂
padonnelly
Congratulations and I’m liking the new site. I’m recently re-discovering the ‘new’ Microsoft and I’m liking what I find. I like Windows 10 technical build and I’m now using Windowsphone 8.1 as my main phone after 8 years of iOS and can’t wait to see what is announced on 21st Jan. Here’s to your new adventure – best wishes and good luck.
cope23
Congrats Paul! Site looks great, looking forward to making Thurrott.com my new daily stop that supersite was. One question… You going to be a custom source for MSN news? Congratulations again!
Info Dave
Night and day difference Paul. Definitely a move to the 21st Century. The “slow-moving corporate behemoth” could not/did not do that for you. I like how you’re matching Microsoft’s current look. And I’ll bet you have the ability to evolve quickly, should the need arise.
I follow you on Twitter. I don’t like email clutter and RSS is too all encompassing (noisy), for me anyway. Is there/will there be a Twitter account for Thurrott and Petri, or will you continue to Tweet links to your latest articles?
Info Dave
BTW, I really enjoy Windows Weekly. Mary has added a lot to the show. Thanks for taking one for the team, just wish the clippers worked better.
Paul Thurrott
I will continue to tweet links. Which reminds me, I need to set that up. 🙂
Ryan Spooner
Congratulations on the site launch Paul. I’m a regular Windows Weekly viewer and think you and Mary Jo do a great show each week. I wish you all the best with your new site 🙂
Sundeep Singh Basra
Congrats, The new site looks good for a soft launch. I think things will improve. I look forward to your Windows 10 commentary.
Proesterchen
I like the usage of a modern, cross-site comment system, and conveniently one I’m already set up with. Wohoo!
Are you planning on adding video content to your repertoire, Paul? On the one hand, it’d be a great addition to hardware reviews in particular, and I’m sure quite a few of us would like to actually see you manhandle some PC hardware when you get around to building your next PC.
On the other hand, video production is hard, and time consuming, and frustrating, so no worries if that’s not in the cards until you can lure some unsuspecting youth into becoming a video production intern. 😉
Paul Thurrott
Yes to video. I have put this off for too long.
avro
Welcome Paul, all the best in this endeavour.
Gregale
Looking forward to good posts, but disappointed to see yet another “responsive” website that renders poorly on traditional desktop/laptop platforms. Social sharing buttons that obscure the text of a post? I always loved design, but I’m really starting to hate designers.
Paul Thurrott
We will move quickly to fix issues like that. The social bar thing is possibly the single biggest issue right now. (Still looking.)
Prototipo20
Congratulations. Yes I like that mug… 🙂
Carlos Javier Larez Campos
Congrats Paul
Matthew Fagnani
Congrats Paul, I hope you have much success with your new site!
AnguisViridis
Congratulations – looking forward to more of your work!
Bill Whitman
Good luck with the new adventure Paul. I’ll be looking forward to reading your excellent insight on Windows and Windows Phone here.
Aaditya Menon
On Supersite , I just couldn’t comment because it didn’t have Disqus . Now I wouldn’t have any issues in commenting here . And BTW , this new site is much more awesome,………..
Omega Ra
Congrats on the new site Paul!
Jai Haack
Congratulations! I love the Troy McClure open.
Paul Thurrott
😀
CoconutScrimp
Congrats on the new site, Paul. It looks great, and I look forward to reading your fair and unbiased look at Microsoft on this new site.
One thing I did noticed on my cell phone was that the Twitter box created a scrollable area w/in a scrollable area, so I thought I was scrolling down the homepage but was actually scrolling down your tweets.
Oh, and look at that — clickable thumbnails. Yas! :’-)
Info Dave
The scrolling issue you describe occurs in many different scenarios. I believe it is intend behavior.
Paul Thurrott
Actual lightbox is coming soon too.
Love the avatar. 🙂
Cosmin Tataru
Wow ! Excellent work, Paul ! Will stick closely. I love the new site !
Brandon Sobotta
Thank god your using disqus!
PaulSorensen
Looking forward to following the new site, even though Paul blocked me on twitter over a mildly heated discussion about Lumia design language. Looking good so far!
Fred
I really like the look of the new site Paul. It also looks like you are off to a great start on the articles. Subscribing to the RSS feed now. Thanks!
Leon
My god the compression on that logo. Please use a png, my eyes hurt.
JimmyFal
Interested to see how WordPress works out for you, glad you didn’t pull a Mike Elgan on us and go with SquareSpace, that would have been so, so; I don’t know, Silicon Valley of you?
Particularly interested to see if any of the “Ads” turn into .DLL fixers, and registry cleaners. I’ll give it time. It’s very depressing to see this on other “respectable” sites such as Windows Central. Hmmm, do you have to bankroll your own expense account now? I’m guessing your looking forward to this Wed. as much as I am. They really need to make a great impression. Hope it’s loads better than 9901 which I hope was just a peek to tease us.
Chad
Just wanted to wish you luck, Paul. Love the new site. Congrats on making the leap!
Jim
I like it, Paul. I like it.
mebby
Hello!