Visual Studio on laptop and desktop

"I have a couple ideas, one more leveragable than the other:

Create a development virtual machine You could create a virtual machine that has your development environment setup the way you want it. The VM could be put on an external drive that you simply plug in to either your laptop or desktop. Available virtualization software that you can use include VMWare Server or VirtualBox. Both should do the job just fine, but both your laptop and desktop will need to have the horsepower to run a virtual machine. I favor this option though over #2 below.
Remote Desktop / VNC This might be tricky, especially since you'll need to have a reliable network connection to the internet, and keep your desktop running 24/7. Basically you setup your desktop to allow remote connections, and use your laptop to remote in from the internet. Security, and network performance, keep this option from being a reality though. If you are interested anyway, look up VNC software or use Microsoft Live Mesh (www.mesh.com). Live Mesh might be the way to go, since it takes the pain out of setting up your network to allow for this connectivity."

Trade your desktop in for a good docking station for your laptop, then you will have the dual display setup, bigger keyboard & mouse while at home, and still have the flexibility of traveling. One machine, one setup to maintain.