if your using windows vista, it won't work, the console, just won't pop up
That isn't true. I run windows Vista home premium 32bit and i dont even run it in compatibility mode or have administrator rights activated on it nor do i uses any command prompts. Yet the console has always worked.
MAYBE if it was 64bit, it might not work, as it seems many games have issues with Vista 64bit but i have not encountered any problems with Vista32 and Oblivion.
Although i do have both the expansions/addons and numerous mods installed now, it did still work when i had it just as vanilla.