ITunes crashes on store access in Windows 8.1

Question

The early November 2013 iTunes update 11.1.3.8 crashes at about 75% to 80% of the way through the "progress bar" when accessing the iTunes store on my Windows 8.1 64-bit computer.
I have tried to repair and then reinstall both iTunes and iCloud, but all that accomplishes is the need to enter my Apple ID and password, which appear to be accepted (since the attempt to access the store is started).
Here are some of the error messages I'm seeing:
Unhandled exception at 0x75372EEC (Kernelbase.dll) in iTunes.exe
0xC06D007E: Module not found (parameters: 0x0054EC54)
Faulting application name: iTunes.exe, version: 11.1.3.8, time stamp: 0x5274a87d
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.3.9600.16408, time stamp: 0x523d4548
Exception code: 0xc06d007e
Fault offset: 0x00012eec
Faulting process id: 0x29fc
Faulting application start time: 0x01cedd66c4e1877a
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunes.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: 18dbc8b0-495a-11e3-bef2-606c669e2888
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Answer 1

Your problem is not the same issue I was having, but maybe it would be fixed by the same thing I did.
1. Browse to "C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Roaming" in Windows Explorer.
2. Rename the "Apple Computer" folder to "Apple Computer-old".
3. Start iTunes
4. Close iTunes
5. Copy the file "iTunesPrefs.xml" from "C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer-old\iTunes"
6. Paste the old "iTunesPrefs.xml" into the new "Apple Computer\iTunes" folder iTunes just created (not the one you renamed) under "C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer-old\iTunes"
7. Overwrite the new iTunesPrefs.xml with your old copy of the file.
If you don't care about losing your iTunes preferences then you can just do step 2. You can always go back and grab things from the old folder later if you realize you wanted to have your EQ settings, individual track gains, etc...