Hello LQ im a complete newbie to linux and i wanted to try it out, ive installed Ubuntu 11.04
it has installed correctly and asked me to reboot my computer so i did but it automatically boots Windows7 and i dont seem to get a choice, i read up on GRUB 1.99 and it says i have to use shift or esc to run it to select Ubuntu, i did this but shift didnt work, tryed esc but i only caught a glimpse of what i think was GRUB before the computer restarted.
if you can help i would apreciate it but no rush

PS ive looked in BIOS and there dosnt seem to be any additional boot options except wether to boot from cd or HDD

If it automatically boots windows, that means you did not install Grub to the master boot record. The options for using the shift and/or escape key will only work with Grub. What you are seeing is not Grub. You will either need to install Grub to the master boot record and subsequently run sudo update-grub or modify the windows bootloader with a third party program called EasyBCD. You can get it by googling "easybcd download" and download it to windows.

Here's a link to Ubuntu Grub2 documentation:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

Section 12 explains reinstalling Grub.