How to use external monitor and close laptop lid

Hi
I have a Toshiba with Vista (it is very small) and uses a larger monitor, Syncmaster, at office. I do not have enough space to open the laptop and having the monitor on my desk. I need to work with my laptop closed (using as a desktop harddrive) and use external monitor attached to it. Then I also need to work on the laptop only out of office. Can someone advise how to set up the laptop?

click start, in search box type power, press enter

1. on the left hand side of the window which just came up, click choose what closing the lid does and select do nothing for when I close the lid.

2. Then in your display management interface (depends on your display adapter), select external screen as primary screen, match image output to external screen native resolution and close lid.

Reverse procedure 2 when you want to use your laptop's monitor.