Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Cleaning the ol' laptop


As I sit typing this I cannot help but be distracted by the smears all across my poor Macbook's screen. It's time the poor gal got a cleaning. So, how best to do it?

I solicited opinions on eco-friendly laptop cleaning from a natural living community *waves to members* and received the following tips:

1. Clean the screen with a damp microfiber cloth. (This is good advice, and it's worked well in the past.)

2. "For the keyboard, take a toothpick and wrap the cloth around it to get the sides of the keys. To get gunk out of the keyboard (crumbs and things), vacuum it." --sierra81 (who runs a green cleaning company)

3. Use iKlear. (Actually, I have a kit of theirs that I ought to break out and try.)

Apparently, their packaging states: "environmentally friendly, non-toxic, non-flammable, chemically and physically inert, and cannot be absorbed by skin." It's also ammonia and alcohol-free.
ladyceleste added:

"You need to turn it off and let the screen cool or you'll end up with streakyness."'

Oops. Well, therein lies my problem.

4. Of course, if you just want to clean off the keyboard without shutting down your machine (i.e. if shutting down your machine falls under "annoyance" for you as it does for me), there's a cute little donation-ware app for the Mac that temporarily disables your laptop while you clean.

5. Use a touch of diluted white vinegar (from multiple sources). I haven't confirmed this one through testing, but white vinegar is one of my buddies.

I'm sure it'll be a lot nicer to use my laptop in natural lighting after I give it a bath.

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