Every expert has a toolkit. Tim Dean takes you through the 10 tools any Windows expert cannot live without. So, to give you a head start, here are PC Authority's top 10 tools for the ultimate Windows user.

We put every current model from ATI and NVIDIA through its paces to find out which offers the best performance and value.

The first place to start tweaking is your BIOS. Enter your BIOS by hitting a key combination on system boot (look out for F1, Del etc). A word of warning though, the BIOS is a very powerful tool, but can cause damage if pushed the wrong way.

nVidia GeForce 256

Great audio, but gaming ability hinges on the success of Dolby and DTS

For many years, After Effects (AE) was the only real choice for PC video compositing - everything else was in a different price/hardware league. But in the last couple of years, with the steady improvement of Pinnacle's Commotion and the huge price drop in Discreet's Combustion, AE isn't alone anymore.

Great real-time performance, particularly with high definition footage. But the EDIUS Pro software still needs a few more features to usurp the competition.

A lot has happened since our last graphics card Labs back in September 1999. Back then the nVidia Riva TNT2 Ultra was starting to give 3dfx a hard time, and the Matrox Millennium G400 MAX was showing

Product brief continues as we look at more products from June.

Customise your Windows desktop

Customise your Windows desktop

Customise your Windows desktop

Customise your Windows desktop

Customise your Windows desktop

Customise your Windows desktop

Customise your Windows desktop

Customise your Windows desktop

Completely customise the appearance of your Windows desktop

Quad-core processor can independently shut down memory controller and cores.