I am running windows 7 build 7229 and before i ran windows update, everything worked fine. Now, when i load windows, the login screen appears, but after logging in, the screen goes black. I have to use alt+ctrl+dlt/task manager and start explorer.exe manually to get the desktop/wallapaper/taskbar/icons to appear. I ran a full virus scan with kaspersky 2010 and no malware was detected. If anyone can help me with this problem it would be much appreciated!

There are hints that not all anti-virus packages are fully compliant with Win 7 as yet. This is not entirely unexpected, particularly if it happened after a Windows update for Win 7.

You could test this by uninstalling your current anti-virus and seeing how it starts up. Dont go on the web during that trial of course.

If this turns out to be the problem, well, you can shift to some other free anti-virus until things settle down.

BTW checks with just one anti-virus means little - see our 8-step procedure in the UPDATED 8-step Viruses/Spyware/Malware Preliminary Removal Instructions

i removed kaspersky and i'm still having a problem.
i don't think i can do the 8-step malware removal because the recommended anti-virus software will not run on windows 7.
Do you think it could be some other incompatibility issue?

i also did a system restore to a point in time where i was not having the problem - and it still persisted. So maybe this rules out the incompatablity issue? If its a virus i have no clue how i would have contracted it because i have had this version of Windows 7 on this partition of my hard drive for only 2 days and i have not downloaded anything or visited any unfamiliar sites.
If you have any reccomendations for free antivirus software that works on windows 7 besides kaspersky i'm all ears.
thanks for the help so far - much appreciated

Looks like a hardware incompatibility rather than software then. Since you give no specs all I can suggest is you should google for exactly this 'blank screen after windows 7 update' which will bring up lots of similar posts to yours, from which you might be able to narrow down to similar hardware to your own.

From what you say, you restore to pre-windows update and it still shows the same problem, you must consider what else has changed hardware-wise since the first install.

absolutely nothing has changed though, in regards to hardware. I have googled every possible phrase and nobody is having the same problem - some are getting the black screen during installation, some before login, but nobody has had it after login with the ability to bring up their desktop/taskbar and such by starting explorer.exe with task manager.

Here are my specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200
MEMORY: 2GB DDR PC3200
VIDEO: ATI RADEON XPRESS SERIES 200 (INTEGRATED)
SOUND: REALTEK AC97 AUDIO (INTEGRATED)
HDD: 160GB BARACUDA (PARTITIONED - 78GB XP PRO/82GB WINDOWS 7 7229)

I assume your XP pro is still fine ? If so,hardware should be ok. All I can suggest is reinstall drivers, and if that does nothing, reinstall Win 7,

xp pro is still fine. all drivers are up to date - i'll just reinstall windwos 7 - thanks anyways for the help!!!

If you haven't reinstalled Windows 7 yet there are a few things to check.

First, boot your computer in safe mode (press F8 on startup) and see if explorer.exe runs properly. If not, restart and boot back in normally. Start explorer.exe manually and then go into the registry editor (regedit in 'run'). Go to the following key and make sure this is correct:

If that is not correct, change it to that and restart the computer. If it is as shown above, then I would reinstall Windows 7.

Sometimes explorer.exe is tricky, since it is the entire 'GUI' (so to speak) of Windows. Maybe download CCleaner and run the registry checker if you want.

spelling error perhaps? Wouldn't that be Windwoes ?

BUT I see you have posted this same request before, and been advised that ALL Win 7 previously available downloads are subject to cut-offs for various lengths of time from end Jun09 EXCEPT RC1. They continue to work, but only for an hour at a time, or some such.....if it doesn't work as MS expects, who would be surprised?

According to what I know, version you have was NOT the RC1, not even an MS-approved release, it was a pirate of some sort. That probably explains your problem completely. The real RC1 can be downloaded, apparently until Aug 15 direct from MS