My complaint isn't aimed only at Microsoft for doing this, although this is the worst example I've seen. My complaint is that products are being marketed and so

My complaint isn't aimed only at Microsoft for doing this, although this is the worst example I've seen. My complaint is that products are being marketed and sold using a false metric: hard drive space. iPads are sold this way, Android phones are sold this way, and yes, "real windows computers" are sold this way. The fact that you think it's important we're talking about a "real windows computer" in this case only reinforces my point that you're suffering the bias of someone who is well versed in technology. Trying to persuade consumers with the capacity of the disk drive is meaningless, but to consumers it doesn't seem meaningless. Otherwise, why would they put it in such big print on the box? Ultimately this only hurts Microsoft (and anyone else who does this) since it worsens some customer's experiences by giving them false expectations. It won't affect all customers and especially not the tech savvy here who are calling the layman stupid for not knowing the difference between "actual formatted capacity" and the number on the package, but real people none the less.