Properly cleaning and maintaining your laptop will insure that you get the most from it, over your laptop’s lifetime. Once you know how to clean a laptop screen correctly, there is no reason you cannot have a screen that looks like it has been turned on for the first time.
What you will need:
- Isopropyl alcohol (Not Rubbing alcohol, it may contain oil, that can stick to the screen)
- Distilled water (Not tap water, it can leave mineral spots on your screen)
- A soft cotton cloth (not a paper towel, it may scratch your screen or leave bits behind). The larger the cloth the better as it will reduce streaks on the screen.
Cleaning steps:
- First you create your cleaning mix. Mix 50% alcohol with 50% distilled water. If you do not have Isopropyl alcohol you can replace that with white vinegar. This mix is basically the same as the ones found in commercial laptop screen cleaning fluids.
- Put the mix into a small spray bottle, the kind that sprays a fine mist.
- Spray the mix onto the cloth not onto the screen.
- Clean the screen with a fast circular motion. Rapid circular movements greatly reduces streaks. Apply an even pressure to the cloth but take care not to press your fingers into the cloth or screen.
Six laptop care tips:
Knowing how to clean laptop screens is an important part of laptop care, here are some other tips to help you take care of your laptop.
- Don’t block any of the laptop fans or allow it to get clogged up with dust. If you allow this, your laptop will overheat.
- Install a good anti-virus program on your laptop and keep it up to date. Generally you will be able to setup the program so that it updates itself every couple of weeks.
- Use a good firewall to keep nasty programs out.
- Occasionally use a spyware detection program to check whether any spyware programs are running on your laptop. Your anti-virus program may not detect these programs as they are not viruses.
- Don’t drop it, laptops are more fragile than they look. Impact damage can break your laptop easily.
- Don’t spill drinks on your laptop, just a few drops can short out your laptop.
