I have been using a laptop as my main DAW platform. One thing I like is being able to take it out of the studio to experiment and solve problems that don't entail other parts of my rig. I appreciate the virtual controller for this, for instance.

However, it's somewhat of a pain because I use different audio drivers and settings, no midi devices, etc. Wenham o I'm working on my standalone laptop. I'm sure others have problems work file paths when they disconnect external storage devices and so on.

Why not allow preferences to be stored in sets and recalled depending on where/how you're machine is being used? This would save me a bunch of time whenever I switch over from studio configuration to mobile computing. Anyone else see usefulness for a feature like this?

I'm not sure what sort of problems you mean. I run Sonar on 3 separate computers with different interfaces and different hardware connected. Drives and filepaths are all different too. But, aside from the occasional missing plugin (generally UAD) and sometimes a bus output to nowhere, I don't really have any issues.

I think what the OP is suggesting is that when he's in the studio with his laptop connected to all his cool toys he needs one set of preferences.  When he is out of the studio with less or none of his cool toys, or different cool toys (but the same laptop) he needs a different set of preferences.
 
Seems like a reasonable idea.

I think I'd call these "profiles" instead of "preferences", which we have already: a studio profile, a mobile profile.
 
I'm currently running Reaper on a laptop instead of SONAR because of the age of the laptop, but I did go through a test phase where I'd run the laptop "fixed" with my Tascam US-16x08, and "mobile" with my PreSonus AB 44VSL. That was a pain, and a small part of picking Reaper. While not exactly what the OP requested, I sure would love to be able to move projects between mobile and desktop and not have to remap I/Os.

I like the idea of user profiles...  I don't necessarily need them myself, but it's a solid concept.  

dwardzala
I think what the OP is suggesting is that when he's in the studio with his laptop connected to all his cool toys he needs one set of preferences.  When he is out of the studio with less or none of his cool toys, or different cool toys (but the same laptop) he needs a different set of preferences.

 
OK I get it now. I was thinking same project on different computers rather than same computer with different hardware.

Yes, I use the same computer in different settings. Calling them profiles would be better language.  In the studio, I use my US 16x08, MOTU midi express, and hardware, but outside of there, I still noodle with sounds an rhythms. (like to see some development for the virtual controller, too.)
 
Mainly it would be nice if i could launch Sonar with a prompt too choose the correct profile then all the needed setup changes could be done once and used over and over.

Wouldn't separate Windows users for different profiles work? SONAR maintains config data by Windows user.