-- by Mike Elgan, Editor

If you're like me, you're constantly bombarded with marketing hype, snake-oil sales pitches and bad recommendations from PC-product proselytizers. Yet all you want is well-informed straight talk about which products are best for you and your business.

You've come to the right place. Our fifth annual Win 100 awards bring you the best of the best Windows hardware and software products. No bull. No favoritism.

We arrive at our decisions based on our lab testing and real-world experience with every product listed. Our team of product specialists, editors and reviewers spends months considering and reconsidering thousands of products. Through a grueling process of elimination, we boil it all down to just 100 hardware and 100 software products. Not an easy feat, but well worth the time and effort.

Every product on our Win 100 list is the best of its kind.

In addition to the Win 100 products, this special edition of WINDOWS Magazine features our five top products in the categories of Best Software Product, Best Hardware Product, Best NT Software Product, Best NT Hardware Product and Best Internet Product. These five extraordinary products exemplify true technical and design excellence.

I recommend that you hang on to this issue. Refer to it next time you go to buy a new software application, peripheral component or complete system.

Also, look for Winfo links at the end of each product write-up for even more, Web-based information at your fingertips.

And when you buy from among the products on this list, I'd like to hear from you. How did you like the product? Did it meet your needs? Was support satisfactory? Drop me a line at melgan@winmag.com and let me know.

Meanwhile, enjoy the issue. And buy with confidence!