Can I Clean Computer Parts With A Microfiber Cloth

Laptop screens get dirty — that'due south merely a fact of life. Whether it'southward a ii-in-one'due south touchscreen or the traditional screen of a clamshell laptop, there's always a collection of mystery dots and fingerprints littering your view. It's an annoying lark.

Device cleaning guides

How to clean a desktop monitor
How to brand a touchscreen shiny once again
How to make clean your camera lens
How to clean and speed upwardly your PC

You tin't just wipe information technology all abroad, either. Some crud needs a microfiber cloth, while other types demand tougher cleaning. In this article, nosotros listing our favorite tools for each type of yuck removal and teach you how to clean a laptop screen without inflicting impairment.

For grit: Microfiber cloth

Person's hand cleaning a laptop screen with a microfiber cloth. — Jon Martindale/DigitalTrends

People who wear spectacles or ain a camera know nearly this trivial tool all too well. After all, it'southward the all-time style to clean a camera lens or eyeglasses.

Designed to remove dust and debris without producing lint or scratching frail surfaces, microfiber cloths are the best place to start when cleaning a laptop screen.

Warning: Absolutely practise not use a paper towel or tissue. They might seem soft when blowing your olfactory organ, but they are extremely rough on scratch-decumbent displays.

Step 1: Shut down your laptop. Non but is information technology safer, but having a bare screen can help you see grit.

Pace 2: Pressing gently on the display, use a microfiber cloth to wipe in one direction. Don't scrub or wipe in circles, equally this could damage the display or just move the grit particles around.

Step 3: Continue wiping across the display until it's dust-free.

What about using a duster? This is also a rubber fashion to remove dust if the coating is extremely light. Avoid feather-manner products, which simply push dust into a cloud. Instead, find ane that collects dust, like the dusters made past Swiffer. If using a Swiffer duster, remember to turn off your laptop before using it.

In that location'southward no set method for removing dust, though you may want to move in an X pattern from height to bottom.

For clay and grime: Damp sponge

Person's hand cleaning a laptop screen with a sponge. — Jon Martindale/DigitalTrends

Sometimes you'll end upwardly with more than dust on your display. Instead of rubbing at information technology with your microfiber cloth to no avail — and potentially dirtying the cloth in the process — you tin use a damp sponge instead.

What you need:

A brand new household sponge.
Distilled, deionized, or filtered water.

Warning: Absolutely avert standard tap water. Unseen minerals can scratch your brandish.

Step 1: Shut downwards your laptop and unplug it from its ability source. If possible, remove the bombardment.

Note: If you're worried about potential drips falling onto your keyboard, place something lite over the keys that won't absorb liquid.

Pace two: Wet the sponge with water and wring it out to eliminate drips.

Step 3: Use the sponge to gently wipe the screen's affected area. Watch for drips and clean them up immediately.

Step 4: Once the area is clean, wait for the brandish to completely dry before closing the lid or using your auto.

For oils and mucilaginous stuff: Cleaning solutions

Person holding a microfiber cloth and spraying it with a cleaning solution. — Jon Martindale/DigitalTrends

If the cloth and sponge methods failed to clean your laptop's screen, information technology's fourth dimension for a safe screen-cleaning spray. Notwithstanding, you can't utilize simply whatever substance. Specific chemicals scratch the surface even if you're using a microfiber cloth.

Avoid these substances at all cost:

Acetone
Ammonia
Ethyl acrid
Ethyl booze
Methyl booze
Methyl chloride
Surface cleaners
Toluene
Window cleaners
Whatever other corrosive substance

You can still purchase 3rd-party cleaners, but they absolutely must non include the chemicals listed to a higher place. Alternatively, you can create a cleaner using the following:

50% distilled water and 50% white vinegar
l% distilled water and 50% isopropyl alcohol
100% distilled water and a drop of dish detergent

Step one: Turn your laptop off and unplug information technology from its charger. If y'all're able, as well remove the bombardment to prevent any electric bug.

Notation: If you're worried nearly potential drips falling onto your keyboard, identify something light over the keys. A cloth that won't absorb liquid is your all-time bet.

Footstep 2: Pour or spray your chosen cleaning fluid onto a microfiber material. Be certain the fabric isn't wet, just damp. Never spray cleaning fluid directly onto your screen. Even though they evaporate quickly, applying liquid to your screen is a sure mode to damage it.

Step three: Gently rub the cloth over the affected area. Rub in small circles to avoid streaks. Don't press besides hard; otherwise, you could displace the liquid crystal molecules and permanently distort the screen.

Step 4: Repeat this process until the screen is completely free of moisture. Also cheque the keyboard and whatever attached hardware, like a mouse or anything connected to the USB ports, to make sure there is no liquid pooling on them.

Step five: As an additional precaution, go out the screen to air dry out for one-half an hour. One time it's dry, yous can close it and plough information technology on.

We put our laptops through a lot on a day-to-day ground. If you eat and beverage while you're working, you lot're more than probable leaving little $.25 of your food behind on the screen, keyboard, and in any other crevices. We owe it to our computers to continue them clean. Post-obit all the steps outlined in this guide should help make your laptop look a fiddling less homely.