Forced 8.1 Update Broke PC

So as you probably know, windows 8 users have constantly been receiving popus telling them windows 8.1 is free. You are given the option to install it or not to. The other night, I received a popup saying that my pc would restart to install windows 8.1 despite me never asking me to. I decided to postpone for 4 hours (since that was the longest option) and finished on my pc before it asked again.

When I turned my pc on today, it finished the update. This has broken my pc. I avoided updating to 8.1 because I heard about it being extremely broken, and it turns out I cant do anything.

The first time I boot/log in, the wallpaper and taskbar loads (without quicklaunch icons) and that's it. If I hover over the taskbar with the cursor, it shows the loading circle thing. The only thing I can do is hit Ctrl + Alt + Delet and either reboot or re-login. The 2nd time I log in or boot, All my icons and stuff load normaly but after about 3 seconds it will start switching between my desktop and the colour of my start menue (blank background) staying on each for about 1/2 a second. After about 5-10 seconds of this, it will return to the desktop with nothing loaded as mentioned before.

What's happening and how can I fix it?

As mentioned before, sometimes it loads normaly for about 10-15 secs, so I used this time to start a factory reset. I'll see what happens when it's done.