Err.... Finally unlocked!!!!
Had to search the web locking problems, which should have been resolved by now.
Came to the conclusion, there was a conflict with Avast. I disabled Avast and restarted, Taskbar not locked but still couldn't use "search" and neither was the windows start button working correctly.
I updated Avast, restarted the laptop and all is well. Turned Avast back on and still behaving properly.
Phew.....