I am dual booting windows xp pro and windows 7 build 7229. Windows 7 was working fine the first few times i loaded it but after i updated it something weird started happening:
The windows login screen appears normally, but once i login, the screen goes black with only the windows 7 watermark at the bottom right and my cursor being visible. I have to use ctrl+alt+delete to bring up taks manager and then run explorer.exe to bring up my desktop/taskbar/icons etc. The OS is still usable i just have to start explorer.exe up manually to use it.
I tried scanning for viruses with kaspersky 2010 and everything came up fine. Then i removed kaspersky figuring it was a compatibility issue. Still no luck. Then i did a system restore to a point in time where i was not having this problem. Still no luck. I've been trying all day to figure out what could be causing this - if anyone has any input it would be greatly appreciated.

Is this the Microsoft Reboot to remind you of the impending shut down because you have had it long enough? Is this the first version of windows 7

its been 2 days since i activated it lol - i dont think its expiring soon.