Better console for Windows?

[Brett Hoerner]

This is a pretty basic, mostly un-python-related question, although I'm
asking because of Python.

Is there a different shell I can use (other than cmd.com) to run Python
in, where I can full-screen the window (if I pleased), etc?  As it is,
things that would run far off the right have to be word wrapped after
very few characters.

Another problem with cmd.com is when I run IPython, if I have an error,
or tab or anything, I get the speaker beep (ala linux) but I can't find
a way to turn it off.  This is a huge problem because I cannot disable
my system speaker on my laptop (not even in BIOS like my old one, and
it's an "error", it bypasses the fact that all my sound is muted in
Windows) and I get incredibly loud beeps all the time (because I suck)
which would not be acceptable while I'm coding on the sly in boring
class.

Ideas?  The only thing I can think of now is using Putty to SSH into a
machine, no beeps there, and I can resize... but I don't have a machine
to SSH into, much less one with all the stuff I want on it.

Thanks in advance.
Brett