Spring cleaning for your computer

We perform routine maintenance on many of our machines, cars, furnaces, or air conditioners, and neglect our computers. What do I mean by a computer cleaning? It is a five-part process:

1. Clean the physical machine.
2. Uninstall applications or stop unneeded ones from auto loading at boot time.
3. Delete unneeded items and organize your hard drive(s) files.
4. Arrange and prune your desktop.
5. Do a security check-up.

This cleanup is appropriate for Windows and Mac computers. It should be done on desktop and laptop computers. Many people experience computer anomalies, such as slow machine responses, random freezes or shutdowns, because they have not cleaned their computers.

Here we cover part 1 – Clean the physical machine.

Is your keyboard filled with crumbs, hair and unidentified particles? Is your screen covered with fingerprints, smudges and/or dust? Are your computer’s air vents clogged with dust balls and animal hair? If the machine is more than a year old, or operates in a variety of environments, from clean to dirty, it is time to freshen it. Turn the computer off and unplug it.

Let’s start with the screen. Wipe the screen with a camera lens cloth or a soft, lint-free, untreated cloth. Do not spray glass-cleaning products on the screen’s surface or the cloth. Most LCD screens have treated surfaces that are damaged by these cleaning products. If you need to use moisture, lightly dampen a cloth with water, distilled is recommended, and then wipe the screen.

A keyboard is more of a problem to clean then a flat surface like a screen. We start by employing gravity. Turn your keyboard or laptop upside down and gently shake it so that dust, hair and other matter lodged between and below the keys falls out. It is a good idea to do this over a recycled newspaper you can throwaway to avoid having to clean up the area afterwards. Next take a damp paper towel or cloth and gently wipe the keyboard surfaces to remove whatever has adhered to the key tops and between the keys.

Heat is the great destroyer of computers and other electronic devices. Unfortunately, these devices generate heat as they are used, in essence, the greater the activity the greater the heat. Most of these devices are air-cooled. Clogged airflow paths are common in older computers. This leads to operating issues and eventual hardware failure.

We need to clean both the inside and the outside of a desktop computer. A laptop or all-in-one like an iMac is best not opened so cleaning will be limited to the external air vents. Avoid using a vacuum on a computer. You may unintentionally suck out a connector or other part, or create a static electricity discharge that damages the machine. A can of compressed air is extremely useful in dislodging dust balls and cobwebs from inside a machine.

Open the case of a desktop computer and spray compressed air at all the interior sides of case vents, fans and anywhere you notice dust buildup. If you do not know how to open the case, you can usually find instructions at the manufacturers website. Carefully remove dust balls that cling. Do not apply moisture to the interior parts and avoid wiping parts as you may damage them. Compressed air cans get cooler as they are used and become quite cold to hold in your hand. Use the compressed air to blow all the dust away from the exterior side of air vents. Do not forget to blow dust away from the fan on the power supply.

It is a good idea to do a physical cleaning periodically. If your computer operates in a dusty or hairy environment, such as one with pets, you should clean your machine much more frequently.