Possible screensaver hides desktop in ME

Hello Folks

A good one to ponder been given a laptop from a friend. When you switch it
on it boots into Windows ME.
The sceen goes black with a little house in the middle surrounded by Green
fields, enclosed in a small box.

Problem:

There are no processes when you Ctl-Alt-del to kill
you cannot see or execute any programs or see icons

Booting into safe mode and disabling different elements in ME on start-up
has no effect or change
All you can do is ctl-alt-del to shutdown. Forgot to add that you can still
see and move the mouse pointer.

Any clues?
programme error or virus?

Thanks in advance and Happy New Year

Lionel