Black screen when logging into Windows 8.0 or Windows 8.1

I finally found the solution for the blank screen problem on booting for windows 8.1.If u find Blank colored screen upon booting and an useless mouse pointer . press any alphabet key and then press backspace and type your password then press enter (type the password on the blank screen itself .password will not be visible while typing). then ull log in .u cant find any icons just the wallpaper and the windows icon in the bottom. move the pointer to top right corner then click on devices then project there ull find the option "second screen only" click it then ull find all the icons reappear on desktop.Then again go to drives then project then select "PC screen only" . This fixed the problem on my pc and working fine now.

Do you have any of the Office programs in a location similar to this, if so perhaps you can create new shortcuts to them?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15

My copy of Office did not come with a disk

http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/products/download-back-up-restore-microsoft-office-products-FX103427465.aspx

Get a backup of Office 2010

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/microsoft-office-2010-backup-FX101853122.aspx

Downloading or getting media for Office 2013 or Office 365

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2808266

I finally took mine to a tech place and he got the darn thing working, but now none of my Office software works!  I don't have the discs - I think it was a download, so now I have to figure out how to download it again.  Did this happen to anyone else?

Thanks to all these hints, I really appreciate it as I've had exactly the same issues.  Unfortunately, I've gotten nowhere thus far.  I have a desktop I rarely use, it is about a year old (Dell) and came with W8 installed.  It is a home computer I primarily use for things I have hard connected like a couple scanners and a postage scale.  I only ran the W8.1 update last weekend, after reading some things about it making keyboard use more user friendly, and about some of the initial bugs being worked out.  When I first ran the update, things looked normal on the Start screen, but the DVD drive wouldn't run.  Kept telling me that the drive couldn't read, although I tried several discs I've used before.  Then, the screen started freezing, and certain programs wouldn't open, then shuts itself off randomly.  Last night, I started back up, got the black screen with the giant unresponsive arrow in the upper left corner, and the whole shebang is frozen.  If I try multiple times, I can usually get the right hand menu to drop out with the various commands, but I can't open the computer section at all, and I periodically get a red Norton box (I have 360) that says my antivirus has been disabled and my system is in jeopardy.  If I open Norton and try to turn the antivirus and etc back on, it tells me a program has disabled my system. 

A couple of times I have randomly been able to open the desktop, but none of the programs will open and they all say they are inaccessible. 

Sorry for the length of this, but my question is actually simple now.  I have limited time at home (work too much) and won't be back until at least 8:30pm to fool with it.  Does this sound like it is totally a MS update issue, in which case I'll call them, or would I be better phoning Dell or Norton first.  I've tried the safe mode and can't even get into it, and I don't know if the update did all this, or if the update shut my Norton down and I've picked up junk.  Where to start?  Thanks.

S: Had to use power icon with shift key to get to safe mode but once there your suggestion worked. Thank you very much!

LECJR.

Many Thanks!