Nemo failing on any attempt to open file manager

[T313C0mun1s7]

I have several older computers running the LXLE distro, and I have been so happy with it that I made the jump to make my home computer Linux. I have run Mint in the past and liked quite a bit and I have much better hardware on this computer so I decided to give Mint 17 Cinnamon x64 v2 a go. Here is my hardware setup:
Cinnamon Version 2.2.16
Linux Kernel 3.13.0-24-generic
Processor Intel Core i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GHz x4
Memory 7.8GiB (8GB nominal)
Graphics Card AMD/ATI Curacao XT [Radeon R9 270X] Using the latest non-beta proprietary driver from AMD

This is a Dell Optiplex 390, with an upgraded power supply and display adapter.

I installed this yesterday and it was working fine. I installed Chrome x64 from http://www.google.com/chrome and use it as my primary browser. I rebooted several times since install without issues. I installed VMware Workstation 10.0.3 x64 from the .bundle so I could install a Windows 7 VM for Office 2013 and Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection. I have created a VM for the Windows install, but I have not yet installed it because it got late. I have logged out and in and rebooted a few times since installing VMware Workstation. I decided to go to bed and install Windows 7 in the VM this morning.

When I decided to get started this morning I plugged in my USB drive with the Windows ISO and mounted it to the VM DVD drive. VMware Workstation gave me an error that it could not create ~/.vmware. At this time I attempted to open the file manager to take a look, but was unable to. I did however confirm via terminal that the folder existed and had the proper permissions.

From this point on I have not been able to open a file manager. If I click on any folder or link to launch it the desktop, all icons disappear, and the desktop context menu stops working. I never see anything that looks like it is even trying to launch a window for the file manager. I can restore the icons and the context menu with a logout/in cycle or a reboot. I can also get them back by toggling the show desktop icons option off and back on in dconf. However, they are useless as they disappear again as soon as I click on one, or the folder in the panel, or the folder in favorites of the menu, or places in the menu, or in short any launcher that might open a file browser.

This is a fairly fresh install, as I have only had a few hours to play with it. I have run update and upgrade with apt-get right after the initial install. So it is all up to date. I have searched for this issue and found others with missing icons, but I think this is a different issue since I have no file browser.

Thank you for any assistance.

[T313C0mun1s7]

UPDATE:

I have installed Windows 7 Home Premium x64, and it went off without a hitch. I got the .vmware warning again, but since the file existed I ignored it. I got a warning that the graphics display drivers I was using might have problems with VMware Workstation, and that if I had problems I might want to change drivers.

So . . . Might my issue be related to the AMD drivers? Will VMware Worktation have fewer issues with the open source driver. What will I lose if I use the open source driver rather than the proprietary one. Will using the open source drivers hurt me if I play games with Steam, or I want to use the full 3D and processing capabilities of my card in Mint, or under VMware?

Thanks again.

[T313C0mun1s7]

Since I am getting a lot of veiws and no replies, and I need to move forward, I have removed the AMD drivers using this guide:

http://linuxg.net/how-to-properly-remov ... inux-mint/

I am about to reboot and I will see if it makes any difference. If not - I am moving on to a distro that better supports my hardware configuration. At least as far as documentation is concerned.