Desktop fails to launch after restart

So, my desktops seem to have stopped launching after restarting my laptop. After logging in all I get is a black screen with no right-click available, no taskbar, nothing. I am able to open programs by CTL-ALT-DEL into Task Manager and opening the file manager. When I minimize opened programs they minimize them to the bottom-left corner of the blank screen.

I ran a system restart but that didn't do anything. I don't know if I've contracted malware or accidently screwed up a setting, but all of this seemed to start right after the latest round of automatic updates. Please help!

Did your PC come installed with 8.1, 8.0? If 8.0 did you do the Store upgrade to 8.1?

What Anti-Virus/Malware do you have installed.

Have you recently installed any other programs?

Have you tried selecting a Restore Point?

Something is causing Explorer.exe from starting, which is causing the black screen.

in task manager go to file , new task ,type in , explorer.exe ,and see if it open your tesktop

Can you start Explorer.exe from Taskmanager?

This is one of the very first errors I had with Windows 8 (Not 8.1) - And it required me to re-activate the OS, it happened on both of my Windows 8 systems, once I re-activated, it's never done it again. I forget what I did to pull up the new activation windows - Try SLMGR.vbs /? from a command prompt, it might have a way for you to re-insert your key.