My desktop is gone

Symptoms: my computer desktop, including icons, menu bar and desktop background have been replaced by a blue screen.
I can see and move the mouse cursor, but clicking has no effect.
Ctrl alt del works, and the mouse responds as it should in the task manager.
the user account login screens seem to work fine.

This is a work computer (a laptop) and so I have been very cautious about what I use it for.

Side note: initially the blue screen that came up had text in the lower left hand corner that read "windows 7
Build 7601
This copy of windows is not genuine"

It also launched a pop up on login offering options to activate / authenticate/register my copy of windows which is legitamite I've been told. It's a work computer, so I didn't actually set it up. However, we went through the pop ups instructions, and the text disappeared, but the problem remains.

Anyone have any suggestions?

If it is a work computer, your best bet is to bring it to your I.T. staff, rather than mess with it yourself.

You should show this to your IT Department before proceeding:

This is symptomatic of drive letter slippage resulting in Non-Genuine Blue Screen lockout. We see this about once per month here. It normally happens after re-imaging or repair causing drive letter to slip.

The solution it to boot free Paragon rescue disk; change drive letter; recover data.

Boot the Paragon CD - select Normal Mode , then Boot Corrector.

Correct drive letters in the system registry.



Release the incorrect letter first, if necesssary.

If this fails you might be able to insert your Product Key from the System Recovery Options Command Line: SLMgr Commands and Options

If this fails you'll need to boot the Windows 7 installer to Clean Reinstall.