ok guys be gentle with me i am an absolute linux virgin....

well i finally got around to installing 'mint 10' (inside windows) on my desktop, however for some reason after the initial installation it doesnt allow me to log-in

i dutifully chose a name and p'word at the very start of the installation....
so it loads and gives the login prompts and accepts the 'username' however when i go to type in the password, after the password prompt, the cursor just blinks and does not accept anything .... so i am going nowhere fast

is there a way to get around this as i havent even managed to login at all yet not a good start lol

I assume that you login in a text console. In this environment the behavior you described is totally normal. It will accept your password, it will just not show anything, when you type. Type your password in and press Enter, and you should be logged in.

In linux mint if you did the default installation then it should show you a GUI login screen not a text login.
I think you can try the recovery mode to reset the password and try again .. or may the GUI is already running in F7.

Is this on a virtual machine?

virtual machine ???? its a desktop

after loading, which takes about 5 mins, a welcome to julia mint text appears, with a text character, penguin or deer, and some phrase eg 'watch out for low flying butterflies', or 'you have asian flu'...
it also has the following text 'mint@mint' on the left page margin followed by a blue $ sign .....
but no login

so i am getting nowhere and am very disappointed with this OS

bump

When you get something like "mint@mint" you are already logged in. But it shouldn't be so, so may I ask how you did install Mint?

By the way, be disappointed of a distro because you don't know what to do is like being disappointed about a car because you don't know how to drive.

i have a disc for mint10 and i used the instal inside windows option