Service registration is missing or corrupt

After days of trial and error, this did the trick for me:

1. Open command prompt and type "NET STOP WUAUSERV". This will stop the spazzing Windows Update Service.
2. Follow up with typing "WUAUCLT /DETECTNOW". This will detect, download, and process all necessary updates behind the scenes. Depending on how many your system requires, this could take A LOT of time. I had 110 updates needed, so it took a while.

Is this a permanent fix? Probably not, but it should get you up to date on all critical updates released at the point in time these commands are run (hopefully).

Is there any more on this issue?

I recently have re-built 2 machines from fresh using the Dell Win XP - SP3 OEM disk and when going to update it just runs and runs and never actually seems to find anything. I have set Windows update for a certain time and that doesnt kick in either.

I have ensured that both the Automatic Updates & the BITS service are both running again i noticed a Fix-It solution from http://support.microsoft.com/mats/windows_update/?wa=wsignin1.0 and when installing this it required .NET frameworks 2 which i installed for it to run. When the Fix-It tool ran through it found errors and fixed some bar the 1 and this was shows as 0x80070005 Service registration is missing or corrupt. Thus now landing me to this page.

Both machines are doing the same... Anyone have any ideas much appriciated.

Thanks

Dan.

I restored my system to a date where I could update windows without any problem and now I can update windows.

I have a different twist on this problem.  Mine is a new virtual XP installation on Windows 7 Professional. I don't have the option to go back to a earlier date.  Any other ideas?

I restored my system to a date where I could update windows without any problem and now I can update windows.