I haven't had an old school desktop[1] in a long time. Laptops have been it for me for years. And I've always had an external monitor attached to it. I find the multi-monitor taskbar in Win 8 (at home) to be pretty useful. I've tried several apps to add that to Win 7 (at work) but they all sucked. So I gave up.
[1] Technically, I've never put those computers on the desk... as it has always been under the desk. It seems strange to call those desktops but that seems to be the standard name for something that is not a laptop.
Edit: Yes, I should have clarified that I am fully aware of computers going on top of the desk. I even had one that was meant to but I used a stand to hold it up right and placed it on the floor (I guess like a tower). But that was with floppies and not a CD so it worked out just fine. I was just saying it was weird for me to call my old computers desktops since I never put them there. Also, there are a good number of systems that are not really meant to be put on the desktop but are still called desktops to separate them from laptops... which are more often on the top of my desk than on my lap. :)
...and then a manufacturer (possibly Compaq or someone more esoteric like Mannesmann Tally), came out with a Mini-tower design and a few arrived at work. Seeing how 'cool' this new arrangement was, some of our engineers took their IBM PC units off their desks and sat them upright at the side.
A few weeks later, the IBM PCs started to die because the retrofitted 5.25" full height hard disks (probably 10-20MB!) began to seize up - the spindle bearings had 'worn in' in one orientation and didn't take too kindly to being tipped on end. Sometimes a good whack would get things moving - if not, it was time for a new (and very expensive) hard disk.
Even many low end business desktops today are designed with the intention to be placed underneath or behind the monitor. It tended to be the big, clunky workstations or consumer PCs that were relegated to underneath the desk.
[1] Technically, I've never put those computers on the desk... as it has always been under the desk. It seems strange to call those desktops but that seems to be the standard name for something that is not a laptop.
Edit: Yes, I should have clarified that I am fully aware of computers going on top of the desk. I even had one that was meant to but I used a stand to hold it up right and placed it on the floor (I guess like a tower). But that was with floppies and not a CD so it worked out just fine. I was just saying it was weird for me to call my old computers desktops since I never put them there. Also, there are a good number of systems that are not really meant to be put on the desktop but are still called desktops to separate them from laptops... which are more often on the top of my desk than on my lap. :)