Black screen with some usability after log in.

I can log in, which takes much longer than ususal, to be taken to the desktop screen. everything is black except for the cursor and the windows icon in the bottom left. Ctrl+Alt+Del gets me to that normal menu and I can open task manager and from there open windows explorer and from there open most programs. I cannot get to the normal home screen, run disks or change tabs.
I have run start-up repair and enabled safe mode to no avail.
I cannot refresh or restart as i bought windows 8 online and have no physical copy of it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Typical case of incompatible video card drivers. Since you can get to file explorer, you should find drivers and try to install them like that, look for them at laptop's manufacturer site from another computer if IE won't work.
What was the format of those windows you downloaded ? if .ISO file, it could be made into bootable USB drive or on a DVD.