I have seen that Windows can switch to the very basic console interface when updating the video drivers and I have also seen programs like Borland C++ doing this.
I'd really like to know how to make this with a console application in C# (or VB.NET if you prefer), and I don't mind using P/Invoke's (and I bet I must!).
In older versions of Windows you could put any console into full screen with Alt-Enter (if I remember correctly).
With the introduction of the Desktop Window Manager and full screen composition via the GPU in Vista that full screen console window function was removed.
(When updating the graphics driver the graphics subsystem is being reset, what you see isn't a console window, but the graphics card default startup into text mode.)