Windows 8 sits atop the “100 Best Products” list from “PCWorld” (www.pcworld.com) and “TechHive” (www.techhive.com).

With big technology launches and announcements now on par with blockbuster movie premiers and red carpet galas, tech fans were treated to their fair share of pageantry and promenading from the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Google, and many others this year. The gang at “PCWorld” and “TechHive” took a look back at 2012 to rank the “100 Best Products” that made the biggest impact

At the top of the list of 100 Best Tech Products sits Microsoft’s biggest operating system update and rollout since Windows 95: Windows 8. In some ways, the jury is still out on whether Windows 8 was/is a big success, but the “PCWorld”: and “TechHive” credit its “substantial performance improvements and bold step into the mobile/touch-screen universe” with winning the top rank for 2012.

The top 10 includes many of the most popular and successful products from the year: Apple’s iPad (3rd generation, for its groundbreaking, high-res Retina display), Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite, Samsung’s Galaxy S III smartphone, and even TV maker Vizio’s first foray into the laptop market with a sleek ultrabook. You can check out the full list at http://go.pcworld.com/100best .

For the “PCWorld” magazine version of the 100 Best list, editors also took the opportunity to review some of the products of the past year that didn’t quite make the impact they could have. The five on the list of flops and failures: Google Nexus Q (Google’s overpriced media streaming device), Ping (Apple’s ignored music-oriented social network), Sony PS Vita (the underachieving handheld gaming system), 3D TV sets (in only 3% of U.S. households) and Windows Home Server 2011.