Responding to complaints, the company said today that the upcoming Service Pack 1 update for Windows Vista will remove “Reduced Functionality Mode” from the OS’s copy-protection scheme.

That’s great news for innocent Vista users who’ve had their systems “reduced” for no good reason, although to be frank some users may find the nagware service with which it’s being replaced equally annoying. “Although our overall strategy remains the same, with SP1 we’re adjusting the customer experience that differentiates genuine from nongenuine systems in Windows Vista and later in Windows Server,” Windows product marketing Mike Sievert explained. “Users whose systems are identified as counterfeit will be presented with clear and recurring notices about the status of their system and how to get genuine. They won’t lose access to functionality or features, but it will be very clear to them that their copy of Windows Vista is not genuine and they need to take action.”

Recurring notices, huh? My God … they’ve finally found a new use for Clippy, haven’t they?