PROnetworks Technology

What Was PROnetworks?

When Microsoft released Windows XP in the fall of 2001, I founded PROnetworks Technology. I was young, driven, and convinced I could build a community that actually helped people solve their computer problems without the jargon or the attitude. What started as a support forum and resource hub grew into something I never anticipated.

Over the course of nearly a decade, PROnetworks served more than 20 million people worldwide. That number was confirmed through Google Analytics over a two-year window (2006–2008), during which 12.2 million visitors alone used the site. At its peak in 2006, we had a distributed team of 55 volunteers and contractors across more than a dozen countries.

PROnetworks was also the launchpad for DualBootPRO (originally VistaBootPRO), a software application that my team and I began developing in 2006 during the height of the site's success. VBP tallied over 3 million free downloads before we launched commercial operations in 2008. The software was featured in PC World, ZDNet, PC Magazine, CNET, and Microsoft's own TechNet Magazine.

It was, by every measure, my first real startup. And it shaped everything I've built since.

Thank You

To everyone who made the PROnetworks community what it was — thank you. The moderators, the contributors, the people who showed up in the forums at 2am to help a stranger get their computer running again. You built something real, and I've never forgotten it.

Special thanks to JD, who kept contributing to the site and community years after I had stepped away to focus on other ventures. That kind of dedication to a community you believe in is rare, and it meant more than I ever properly expressed at the time.

So many good memories from what was, in the end, my first startup. A teenager's side project that somehow reached 20 million people. PROnetworks taught me that technology is only as valuable as the community built around it — a lesson that still drives every system I architect today.

What Came Next

The skills and instincts I developed at PROnetworks — building distributed teams, scaling web infrastructure, solving real problems for real people — became the foundation for everything that followed:

• HawaiiGuide.com — One of the largest independently-owned Hawaii travel resources, reaching 15M+ annual visitors at peak. Built entirely from South Carolina.
• Fractional CTO Practice — Helping small businesses cut costs and scale with AI integration, workflow automation, and systems architecture.
• DualBootPRO — 3M+ downloads, featured in PC World, CNET, ZDNet, and Microsoft TechNet. Born directly from the PROnetworks community.
• AI-Powered Workflows — Building agentic systems that let solo operators execute at team scale. The same multiplier principle I learned running a 55-person distributed team as a side project.

Tech Content

The engineering and technology writing that once lived on pronetworks.org now continues here. If you came looking for technical deep dives, here's where to find them:

The PROnetworks Timeline

The same builder. New systems. Same philosophy.

Technology is only as valuable as the community built around it.