If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know how often I stress the importance of keeping viruses and other forms of malware off of your computers and mobile devices.

Malware is the number one cause of sluggish system performance. Even worse, it can cause you to suffer monetary loss and identify theft as well.

But as you might imagine, it’s just as important to keep your devices “clean” in the physical sense – and that includes the inside of a desktop computer or laptop!

Today, I’m going to give you a few tips for safely cleaning your computer’s innards as well as the screens on all of your devices. 

First, a tip for cleaning your mobile devices…

It’s actually pretty easy to clean a smart phone, tablet, MP3 player, GPS unit or other mobile device since you don’t have to worry about cleaning the their insides.

Shut the device down before you begin, then wipe off the screen and the plastic case every day or so with a quality electronics cleaning wipe. (#ad)

Note: It’s very important to only use wipes that were designed to clean electronic devices and screens.

Never use baby wipes or kitchen/bathroom cleaning solutions because their ingredients can damage screens and some of the other materials in and on your devices.

Electronics cleaning wipes are also treated with an anti-static solution to help prevent damaging your sensitive electronic devices with a static discharge.

And now, a few tips for cleaning your laptop and desktop computer…

You can clean your computer’s screen and the outside of the case by wiping them down with the same electronics cleaning wipes that I mentioned above. Just be careful not to put too much pressure on an LCD screen or you could end up scratching and/or cracking it.

Unlike your mobile devices, your laptop and/or desktop computer needs to have the dust removed from the inside of the case every few months.

The best way to blow dust out of a computer is with a can of compressed air, but it must be done correctly in order to ensure a thorough cleaning as well as the safety of the internal electronic components.

When blowing the dust out of a desktop computer, you’ll really need to remove the cover or side panel to gain access to all the internal places where dust can gather. You’ll also need to take care not to damage the cooling fans or loosen any cables or connectors.

This post contains a short video that shows how to safely blow the dust out of the inside of a desktop computer.

I don’t really recommend trying to remove the cover from your laptop in order to blow the dust out of it. I recommend that you take it to a computer repair shop and have them clean it out for you if it’s badly clogged up and over-heating.

I do recommend shooting some compressed air into your laptop’s cooling vents about once a month. That will help prevent dust from building up inside your laptop in the first place.

That’s all there is to it. Now you know how to keep your computer and mobile devices clean and dust-free!

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