I need to deactivate Windows XP so I can set it up with a new license. Every tutorial I've visited followed the same steps. (Example from eHow)
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?
Best Answer
This may be a little bit too obvious but the official Microsoft Support article has two possible methods for changing the product key. The first one is certainly the one you've already tried, but there is also a second method using a VBScript.
If you copy and paste the VBScript given in microsoft article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328874 into a text editor like notepad, and then save the file with a .vbs extension (use quotation marks around the file name if you find that the .txt extension is automatically appended).
Then execute that script with the new product key as an argument as shown in the instructions given beneath the script. Obviously if you have noted saved it to the root of your C:\ drive the exact command you'll need to type into the run dialog will include the location where you have saved it. Alternatively you can run this from the command prompt in the same way.