BITS Error 1290: 0x50a following updates

Yes that looks good - exactly as I would proceed.

The present standardized prophylactic and potential troubleshooting steps should be 

[1] Turn Off automatic updates, this is a priority first step

[2] Manually download and manually install the latest cumulative security update for IE and reboot

[3] Visit Windows Update and check response and use task monitor to observe CPU % loading for potential anomalous continued spiking at 100%  and if found to be an issue then proceed as follows

[4} Run services.msc and check the configuration of BITS, if found abnormal

[5] Run the registry merge and reboot

[6] Repeat [3] 

Does this look right to you?  Of course there are more steps potentially, but just to get started and logically carry through if the reg fix is needed and check if that worked to resolve the issue

BTW your reg fix sure looks a lot better work than the afro engineered partial patch or cabbage patch version by TheWraith517

Everyone was in complete agreement from the beginning that this issue with updates in all its particulars is owned by Microsoft because the issues occur with nice fresh squeaky clean installs.

So it is a no brainer where the problem has come from is Microsoft.  It doesn't take a genius to know that or to figure out that Microsoft likely created the problem on purpose because of the timing or doesn't care about the issue and views it as fortuitous timing to conveniently ignore and claim it would just take too long to fix.

I think you have seen the light!

Obviously this fix is designed to rectify one particular BITS problem - caused by a specific action - running one of these faulty Fix-It's. It restores the whole BITS registry fixing any changes to keys and values - and removes the critical extra keys inserted by the Fix-It's - while doing no damage if they were not the cause of the problem.

It doesn't really matter what screwed the BITS registry in the first place this fix is worth a go as the first step of any fix for XP's BITS - very quick and simple - as long as you trust the source of the registry file. Obviously if DLL files, DLL registrations or other non-BITS registry keys have also been messed with this will not be the full fix - and you can then proceed on with the more complex solutions required. Apply the fix reboot and re-test if BITS starts - then proceed as required.

Reading back through most of those threads you quoted - and many others related to BITS problems - you will find critical items of information - that with hind-sight - should have indicated a potential  cause of the problem.  There are also many references half way through a fix saying "and I ran the Fix-It again" and it still showed an error - they just reversed half the fix by re-applying the corruption.  

To quote myself from the following thread - top of page 2 - 18th December:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-windows_update/bits-changed-to-systemrootsystem32qmgrdll-1000/9e59259a-ce09-42f6-9954-bfb6bb0f4f37?page=2

There really are only 2 ways the BITS (service) could get renamed to this specific string

 "@%SystemRoot%\system32\qmgr.dll,-1000" - it is not some random name or malicious bug.

1. The first possibility is that an update or utility program is making the change.

The MS-Fix-It tool (KB971058) creates this exact BITS registry screwup

2. The additional possibility is that some people are manually applying BITS registry fixes designed for Vista, Win7 on the earlier XP systems - which causes similar but not identical symptoms. 

However if someone said they had used an MS-Fix-It for Windows Update prior to getting this BITS problem my money would be on the Fix-It being the cause.

Happy Xmas

Doug, does the registry merge take care of the parameters also or will the run command to do that also be needed to be done as a followup for the merge? 

Update: Never mind I opened the reg file and took a look and see that it does have the parameters.

With the removal of the 3 invalid registry entries included in your file it would seem to be the best one of these registry fixes yet.  Provided the 3 incorrect entries are there then they will be removed, and if they aren't there then there is no issue.

I had been following threads that have been related to the registry merge as either the entire needed fix in many cases or as a component of a more comprehensive redundant kind of solution.

I had been reading the threads linked here

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-performance/bits-service-is-missing-how-can-i-get-it-back/a936abff-d343-4760-a6a6-14937a1e24e5?page=2

and here

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-windows_update/windows-update-died-tried-many-solutions-still/7d5ec39f-086f-471f-a713-b195d4c4b24d

and here

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-windows_update/windows-update-failed-get-error-message-0x80246008/1fd3ce28-62b2-454c-922b-3130e9106328?page=2

and another one that I know you know about also

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-windows_update/bits-appears-corrupt-on-fresh-xp-install/29353b45-7cbc-4320-a42b-33885c46daa8