[Visualpython-users] Python Interpreter exits when Display window is closed

I'm running the 64-bit version of VPython 5.72  (http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#vpython), on Windows 7, with a normal, 64bit python 2.7.2 interpreter (not Vidle).
I realize this isn't an "official" version of VPython, but seems to work otherwise.

>From the interactive python prompt, with a simple program like:
from visual import *
sphere()

It displays the sphere, but when I close the Display window, the python interpreter itself exits.
Is there a way to prevent this?

...I can't seem to use Vidle, if that's the solution...either the 64bit version doesn't install it correctly, or I'm not invoking it correctly (there is no desktop shortcut, and when I run idle.bat from the command line I get a "Windows cannot find 'idle.pyw'.  Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again".)  There is a file, idle.pyw in the vidle directory, so I'm not sure why it can't find it.

Thanks for any assistance,
Gerrat