I personally have installed the 3M drivers on my everyday PC and have used it for testing various touchscreens with. So there is not always a TS monitor connected to it, usually just my standard PC monitor. Never had any issues swapping back and forth nor just leaving the drivers on there.
Kinda like installing USB drivers..... the PC really doesn't care if the USB device is there or not, but it knows what to do when it is there.
I've had to re-boot on occassion after plugging a touchscreen in though for it to get recognized, so keep that in mind.
And also keep in mind the drivers we pointed at may or may not work. (generally they do though) I've found a couple controllers that were brand new and seemed to want some different drivers. The more info you can find on the controller, the better off you'll be.
Let us know how it goes.......