I have a possible fix for those of you who have been struggling...
I was having issues because of DRM limitations related to Windows Media 11. After lots of help from John T, I tried uninstalling Windows Media 11 (actually a rollback because you cannot totally uninstall WM). Once it finished the rollback, I was able to login with no problems.
The next day Windows auto-updated Windows Media back to v11 (bless them
). I figured I'd be re-rolling back, but tried logging in just for grins, and it worked!
To sum up, try uninstalling (rolling back), then try logging in to Performer. If that works, reload the latest version of Widows Media, and you should be good-to-go. Here's a link to uninstall Windows Media:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/readme.aspx#RollingbacktoapreviousversionofthePlayerOne other quick note, if you do try this, note the rollback is a two step uninstall process (the player and the runtime)