[H] Odd Windows 7 issue

[Thane K. Sherrington]

I've run into this a few times before - the computer boots to Windows 
but there are no icons (but the text heading for the icons appear).  The 
start menu doesn't.

I've always fixed this with a repair install/inplace upgrade but this 
time this hangs at "collecting files".

I believe it's related to damage in the Default User folder.

Any ideas how to fix it?

T