No desktop icons, task manager, mouse or task bar on start up

Hi, I have just bought a brand new high end gamer, Running windows 7 home premium 64-bit, Everything was running super - until I turned it on one day - and nothing. Received a "starting windows" screen then it was followed by the background screen of the desktop. (I have my log-in screen disabled to boot through - since I am the only one who uses this computer).
I get a desktop picture, but no icons of any kind, no task bar, no mouse or task manager (which most of these problems are able to get, meaning a easy solve) - Nothing at all.
when I do press CTRL+ALT+DELETE it brings up a black screen that disappears after a while (or if I press Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and then at that time I can use my mouse, from this I can right click, desktop icons are clicked (can be unclicked and reclicked nothing happens) some of the other options just do nothing resulting in the same blank screen showing my background - while others do work but are useless.
In summary - things seem to be working in background - but are NOT visible - and impossible to see what is going on.
I've tried various things like SFC /scannow (scan shows "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations") , F8 on reboot - did nothing- (feel free to list others that you think might work)
Checked ALL drivers - and ALL are up to date. Computer is Brand new - and set up especially for Win 7 system - so ALL hardware is compatible and approved. As the computer is new there was new software and installations basically a bunch of programs downloaded from ninte.com a trusted site - nothing unordinary, things like steam, skype etc.
I'm not computer illiterate - but this problem has me totally stumped. Any help would be appreciated.
the sounds of programs opening like skype can be heard, so I know that its working but I just can't see it :/
Again any help is welcome,
Thanks.

The issue is related to explorer.exe. This service is responsible for running the desktop on the screen. It gets corrupted due to virus, malwares, themes and other files which you use usually on the system. It is possible to fix the system by running system restore. Sfc /scannow will try to fix and replace the system files which might not affect the desktop properties much.

Have you tried to boot into safe mode? If you are able to do so, and if everything is as it should be, you should be able take a look at explorer.exe and to scan for malware. Also able to restore to an earlier date from here. Good luck.