iTunes Store Temporarily Unavailable - How I Fixed It

I recently had to rebuild my laptop by reloading the O/S and ran into an issue where iTunes would not allow me to log into my account.  The error in my Windows 8 install kept saying that the iTunes Store was Temporarily Unavailable.  At first I dismissed the issue as a maintenance deal on Apple's side, but after a couple of weeks, I decided to look more into the problem.  I did everything from checking my local firewall to flushing my DNS cache and nothing seemed to work.  I also updated my payment information to no avail.  I ended up finding a solution that worked for me.  It's listed as working for Windows 7, but I can confirm that it works for Windows 8 as well.  Without further ado, here is the fix:

1. Quit iTunes (and Safari if installed)
2. Enable "hidden files, folders and drives"
3. Navigate to C:\Users\YourProfile\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\Cookies *
4. Delete all contents in the "Cookies" folder
5. Launch iTunes
6. Log on to your iTunes account

These were the steps that finally allowed me to log on to iTunes.

 * Substitute "YourProfile" for whatever username applies to you.