Windows Phone & Lumia Links

A curated directory of the Windows Phone, Lumia and wider Nokia smartphone community — discussion spaces, news sites, journalist archives and preservation projects. Every external link opens in a new tab.

If your goal is to keep a Lumia or Windows Phone device usable in 2026, start with Running Windows Phone Today (Windows Phone Internals and the interop unlock tools). For contemporary reporting from the Lumia era, see Nokia & Windows Phone News Sites. For our sister site covering the Symbian and N-Gage years, see the All About Symbian links page.

This list is community-driven and far from complete. If you know of a resource we have missed, or spot a broken link, get in touch via rafeblandford.com.

Jump to:   Running Windows Phone Today  ·  Community & Forums  ·  Nokia & Windows Phone News Sites  ·  AAWP Journalists, Authors & Podcasts  ·  Internet Archive Collections  ·  Reference

Running Windows Phone Today

Tools for keeping a Lumia or Windows Phone device usable in 2026. The Windows Phone modding scene is much smaller than Symbian’s but the canonical interop tools are still maintained and the Lumia hardware itself remains functional.

Bootloader unlock & interop

  • Windows Phone Internals (WPinternals) — Rene Lergner / Heathcliff74’s open-sourced bootloader unlock + root access tool for Lumia devices. The canonical interop unlock tool: supports Spec A (520, 620, 820, 920…) and Spec B (435, 530, 1520…) bootloaders. Required for sideloading and most modding.
  • XaploadUnlocker (fadilfadz01) — Tool to unlock app sideloading on Windows Phone devices that already have an unlocked bootloader.

Firmware & WoA projects

  • LumiaFirmware — Firmware repository / reference site for Lumia FFU packages and RM / product-code lookups. Commonly referenced in the modding community.
  • LumiaWOA — User-facing site for the Windows-on-ARM Lumia project: install Windows 10 / 11 ARM on supported Lumia hardware. Advanced unlocking guides included.
  • WOA-Project guides — Community guides covering interop unlock, Lumia bootloader work and the wider Windows on ARM Lumia community.

Alternative app stores

  • Penguin Store — Julian Hasreiter’s alternative store for Windows 10 Mobile — sideloads modern UWP apps onto Lumia devices via a redistributable client.
  • Penguin Store UWP (GitHub) — Source repository for the Penguin Store UWP client.

Community & Forums

Active discussion spaces for Lumia, Windows Phone and Nokia.

Reddit

  • r/windowsphone — The main English-language Windows Phone subreddit — Lumia devices, Windows 10 Mobile and ongoing nostalgia / collector posts.
  • r/LumiaLovers — Smaller Lumia-specific sister sub focused on the hardware.
  • r/Nokia — Main Nokia brand subreddit — covers the HMD era, Lumia history and collector content.

Forums

  • Windows Central Forums — Strong archive of Windows Phone discussion, troubleshooting, upgrade guides and device-specific threads. Still accessible and occasionally active.
  • XDA Windows 10 Mobile — XDA’s Windows 10 Mobile section: ROMs, interop unlock guides, dev discussion.
  • XDA WPInternals tag — Community threads, drivers, troubleshooting and user experience reports around WPInternals.
  • XDA Windows Phone Internals thread — The core historical XDA thread for WPInternals: bootloader unlock, root access and custom ROM creation on supported Lumia hardware.

Nokia & Windows Phone News Sites

News sites and blogs whose Lumia / Windows Phone era archives are still online. Most are no longer producing new WP content, but each preserves a substantial body of contemporary reporting.

  • Nokia Power User — India-based Nokia / Windows Phone news site with extensive Lumia archive.
  • Mobile-Review — Russian mega-site — the definitive Lumia and Windows Phone review archive in Russian.
  • Mobile Industry Review — UK industry site founded by Ewan MacLeod (361 Degrees Podcast co-host); deep Nokia and Windows Phone archive.
  • Nokia Conversations (MS mirror) — Nokia’s official PR blog from the Lumia era, preserved on the Microsoft Devices blog.

AAWP Journalists, Authors & Podcasts

Personal blogs, author sites and podcasts from writers who covered — or built — the Windows Phone and Nokia smartphone era.

Writers & bloggers

  • Rafe Blandford — Founder and editor of All About Windows Phone and All About Symbian.
  • Steve Litchfield — AAWP / AAS editor and most prolific writer across the All About sites; camera comparisons, The Phones Show.
  • Ewan Spence — Long-serving AAWP and AAS writer; mobile gaming and industry commentary.
  • David Gilson — Joined the All About family in 2009; over 1,200 articles on productivity, gaming and how-to guides across AAS and AAWP.
  • Matthew Miller (palmsolo) — Long-time ZDNet Mobile Gadgeteer; covered every major Lumia and Windows Phone flagship.
  • Eldar Murtazin (LiveJournal) — Mobile-Review editor’s personal LiveJournal with Lumia / Windows Phone era posts.

Podcasts

  • 361 Degrees Podcast — Rafe Blandford, Ewan MacLeod and Ben Smith’s long-running mobile podcast — covered the entire Windows Phone era.
  • Nokia Chronicles Podcast — Adrian Hughes’s interview-based podcast covering the glory days and devices of Nokia, with industry veterans and former employees. Latest episodes March 2023.

Internet Archive Collections

Large-scale preservation on archive.org for Lumia, Windows Phone and Nokia. The search links below are the broad discovery entry points.

Discovery searches

Reference

Device catalogues, museums and historical references covering the Windows Phone and Nokia smartphone era.

  • Mobile Phone Museum (UK) — Not-for-profit with 2,800+ devices including every Lumia generation and Microsoft handset.