I need to deactivate windows xp so I can set it up with a new license. Every tutorial I've visited follow the same steps. (Example http://www.ehow.com/how_6665848_deactivate-windows-xp-pro.html)

The tutorials state that the 00BE timer file located in the registry needs to be modified. It is found by going to the registry and navigating through "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE," "Software," "Microsoft," "WindowsNT," "CurrentVersion" and "WPAEvents."

After the file is modified Windows should be deactivated. However it never does. The value changes but when I run the command to add a new license key it states "windows is already activated".

I've done this before on other machines at it worked fine. I can't find any other methods to change the license in XP. Has anyone ever had this issue or knows of another way of deactivating windows?