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Microsoft’s new ads dubbed “The Mojave Experiment” are a breed of their own. They reek of damage control, selective editing, and good old manipulation. Advertising annoys me in general, but these type of ads are especially maddening. Why? Because it is 100% certain that there will be tons of computer-illiterate folks who see these ads and don’t consider all the reasons why they show absolutely nothing at all.

Let’s begin at the beginning. Many troubles with Vista revolve around incompatibility. With computers, printers, scanners…everything under the sun. In the “Mojave Experiment,” Microsoft has pre-selected software, computers and peripherals that have all been tested and work fine with Vista. There was no opportunity for the surveyed users to take “Mojave” home and try to set it up with all their existing gadgets. Most “real users” liked Vista fine, at first, too, but then ended up scrapping it due to problems starting with troublesome installations. When those surveyed were testing “Mojave,” it had already been installed, as had all the programs. No hassle. This is enough of a problem already, as many stopped using Vista altogether based simply upon these two factors, neither of which were even addressed here.

The problems I pointed out above are further compounded by the fact that the people surveyed never even got to use “Mojave.” I repeat: Never. Used It. The Mojave Experiment consisted of a Vista expert walking those surveyed through certain points of Vista. They never got to play with programs, try to install software, get annoyed by the Security Center, or get yelled at by Windows Genuine Advantage. Most likely, only the positive lights of each feature were touched on—the Security Center was certainly not demoed as the annoying hindrance it is.

On to the selective editing and poor setup. Going into the survey, people knew that Microsoft was the company in charge, and they knew they were being shown a Microsoft product. While it wasn’t so hard to tell them bad things about Vista, when they were presented with an “all new” Microsoft OS, it’s highly likely that they would, out of politeness, make their perceptions sound better then they were. Of course, since they never actually got to use Vista, it’s also likely they didn’t have very many bad perceptions. Finally, there was no neutral third party involved here. If they received bad comments about “Mojave,” do you think those clips made it to the Mojave Experiment website? Me neither.

What the Mojave Experiment is essentially trying to sell is this: If a few dozen computer-illiterate people, shown key points of Vista by a Windows expert on a computer and peripherals handpicked by Microsoft, using software chosen by Microsoft that works well under Vista, were told that it was a new version, thus creating a placebo effect, ended up liking Vista, then so should you. We don’t care that it took you two days to install; we don’t care that none of your printers work, though they did under XP. Stop whining. These people managed to like it, and you can too.

You can rail on me for being an Apple fanboy and thus having bias, but the truth of the matter is this has nothing to do with Windows. This is purely bad science and advertising at its finest.