<p>I need to present the user with a matrix of which one column is editable. What is the most appropriate control to use?</p>

<p>I can't use a ListView because you can only edit the first column (the label) and that's no good to me.</p>

<p>Is the DataGridView the way to go, or are there third party alternative components that do a better job?</p>

DataGridView is the best choice as it is free and comes with .NET WinForms 2.0. You can define editable columns or read-only. Plus you can customize the appearance if required.