There are plenty of reasons to run a virtual machine. The first, and most compelling, is that you want to play: Maybe there are some other operating system you want to dabble with (cough Linux cough), but you don’t want to deal with installing another hard drive, partitioning your existing drive, or setting up your system a different way.

Whether you're after a new gaming rig or something a little simpler, when it's time to get a new PC the toughest decision is not which bells to include and which whistles to exclude but whether you should build it yourself or just buy a pre-built computer.

I've always been a fan of Valve's Steam streaming, because it means you don't have to lug your desktop PC around your house or apartment whenever you feel like gaming somewhere else. Though your laptop might not be able to run The Witcher 3 natively - or at least, not very well - it's a lot easier to let your gaming desktop do all the heavy lifting and stream its output to another device, such as the three-year-old laptop you're using from your backyard hammock.

Acer announced a huge chunk of new products at their global press conference this week. So we figured it might be a good idea to organise them in one place.

So I tried to switch to Apple Music. I was sick of Spotify and its thousand little problems and I missed iTunes. (Actually I missed Winamp, but that's not an option.) iTunes feels less like a spreadsheet. It handles device downloads better. It works great with Siri and my Apple TV. Plus it's got all the music I actually own, including all the weird little mashups and SoundCloud downloads that Spotify can't give me.

Your Dock or Start menu is your way into macOS and Windows, respectively, as well as everything running on top of them. So it makes sense to have these launch systems configured in exactly the way you need them to be. We've got a bunch of essential tips on streamlining your Dock or Start menu, and powering through your computing more efficiently.

PCs are great, but often they feel like they're made for another species besides humanity. Each additional cord you plug in adds a new cord for you to manage and untangle. They're customisable, but it's intimidating to open one up and start pulling out its guts. That big ol' display on your desk takes up a lot of counter space. Luckily, you can reclaim the real estate on your desk, replace your mess of cables with a one-stop connection shop, and put everything in its place to improve your quality of life (and that crick in your neck) with these must-have accessories to your workspace.

Privacy-conscious users will be happy to hear about Microsoft's latest addition to Windows 10, which adds transparency in terms of data collection, and finally let users see what information is being sent for analysis to Microsoft. The Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer makes it more convenient for users to see what data Microsoft is gathering, but won't do much to actually help users stop the company from getting their hands on the data in the first place. To halt data collection, you'll need a different version of Windows 10, one you can't exactly buy from your local Harvey Norman.

Windows 10: You can now download the next major update to Windows 10, dubbed the Fall Creator's Update. You'll be able to enjoy major features like Mixed Reality support, bringing augmented reality to compatible PCs, as well as minor upgrades to features like handwriting recognition, voice control via Cortana and a revised user interface.

Duolingo's flashcard app Tinycards has made its way to Android, which is big news for anyone into that style of learning. But while the app can be used for anything, one of its best uses actually covers Duolingo's biggest weakness: learning Arabic and Mandarin.

PCs come in all shapes and sizes: there's the bog standard beige tower, a unit that fits inside the palm of your hand, a rig that looks just like a console, and then mecha-inspired creations like the one above.

Building a PC doesn't have to be daunting, though. And while there are tons of reasons to build a PC, ranging from better graphics to cheaper games to greater versatility, there's also some things you should know before you start.

As someone who lives and works in a city, I witness just how scarce space is becoming on daily basis -- from fitting more people into an office to apartments.

People like me need smart solutions for this problem, including when it comes to tech. Anyone who is passionate about their rigs don't want to compromise on specs to save space. And we don't have to.

If you're in need of a beefier graphics card, there's a decent deal available on the GTX 1080 right now from one of the country's bigger vendors.

When you're buying a new gadget, you want the fastest, most powerful one you can get for your money. Benchmarks can help you figure out what devices have the most power, but sometimes they're just a distraction.

The holidays is a great time for gift-giving and an equally good time for discovering something new. But not everyone has cash to blow on new console games or the Steam sales, and sometimes you just want to try something for free. So if you're looking for something to play on the cheap over the holidays, or want to install something at minimal cost to keep your relatives at bay, here's 11 titles to help you out.

Who doesn't hate carrying around their laptop? Even the lightest ones weigh a couple of pounds and can be a huge burden to lug around the city. That's where portable apps, ones stored on a USB drive, come in.

Over time, PCs get bogged down with unnecessary files that take up space and slow their processing speed to a crawl. Fortunately, there are resources like CleanMyPC to get your computer running like new again. Now only $27.99, CleanMyPC strips away those unnecessary files and brings your PC’s performance back to optimal levels.

Despite Microsoft's best efforts to move everybody onto Windows 10, Windows 7 is still the company's most popular operating system. Microsoft stopped selling consumer editions of Windows 7 two years ago but kept the professional version going so original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like HP, Lenovo and Dell could keep pre-installing them on their PCs. Now Microsoft has finally stopped selling Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 licences. Here's what you need to know.

Fujitsu's PC business isn't doing so well and rumour has it that Lenovo is looking to buy it. Today, the two companies announced that they will team up to make PCs that will be under the Fujitsu brand. An acquisition of Fujitsu's ailing PC division may still be on the cards.