New install windows 7 gone completely wrong three times now, help, Please!

Hi,
I just reinstalled Windows 7 and initially all seemed well. When I was connected to the Internet, Windows installed 3 updates and prompted me to restart. When Windows appeared again, it was much smaller on screen surrounded by black. There was just a blue background with a windows logo. No start menu, taskbar, nothing! I managed to right click the screen and change the resolution so that the background now fills the screen. Internet Explorer no longer seems to exist. I have tried control ,alt, delete to get the task manager to type explorer.exe but it doesn't work, it just blacks out the screen. I am now on my third install. After the last install, everything looked great but again Windows asked for a reboot as it had found updates. It would appear to be these Windows updates that are causing the problem.........I can't seem to find a restart to boot into safe mode.
I am installing from a genuine Windows 7 Professional DVD, which has always worked in the past......please help.
It's not like I won't help myself, after three installs, I just need you clever people to impart your knowledge......