When it comes to Microsoft, it pays to be careful what you say in public. That’s what Simon Aldous found out the hard way recently when he proclaimed that Windows 7 “borrowed” a little bit of the Mac mojo during a recent reseller’s conference.

Aldous infamously gave credit to Apple for having a desirable operating system (according to a Microsoft study), going so far as to claim that Windows 7 wanted to “create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics.”

Needless to say, tech blogs had a field day with that quote — that is, until PCR Online, the computer and software reseller publication who first printed it, was found to have presumably gotten the story a tad bit wrong with regards to Aldous’ stature within the company.

Aldous was painted as being a Microsoft executive in his role of marketing manager for the Worldwide Partner Group. It didn’t take long for Brandon LeBlanc, a chief Microsoft online evangelist, to set the record straight: “Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed.”

BetaNews.com went so far as to cite Windows 7’s “revised taskbar” as proof of the Mac inspiration, which compares favorably to the Finder’s Dock. They make it clear, however, that no one at Microsoft felt the same way when the feature was introduced at last year, despite audience questions to the contrary.

Of course, it’s not the first time that Windows has been accused of emulating the Mac, but it may be the last coming from anyone up in Redmond, if Microsoft has anything to say about it.