Spring Clean Your Netbook Inside and Out

The folks over at LaptopMag ran an article detailing how to "Spring Clean your Laptop Inside and Out" but after reading through the article I found that all the same lessons apply to a netbook as well. Cleaning steps include:

Outside:

1. Clean the screen: Don't use any cleaner with alcohol, ammonia or solvents. When I've cleaned my screen in the past I've found plain old water works just fine but they suggest distilled which technically should be better, but I never have any distilled water around. The other option I found is this Monster Alcohol Free Cleaner. It costs about $15 and has some good reviews.

2. Clean the keyboard, touchpad and vents: Hold the netbook upside down and give it a gentle shake. You can also use compressed air to blow out dust and particles. I've done this before in the past and it's always pretty gross what comes out so I like to hold my breath while blowing everything out. Clean any of the air vents that may have gathered dust and hair as this causes the netbook to potentially overheat as it makes the fan work harder.

Inside:

1. Remove old Programs: Delete old programs by going to the control panel, selecting programs and features and choosing uninstall a program. If you're like me than there are bound to be plenty of programs that are no longer necessary.

2. Get rid of unnecessary startup programs: This is a step I'd recommend you perform the very first day you get your netbook. Here's how you turn off programs that start when the computer is booting up:

A) Click Start Menu > Type msconfig in search box > press enter
B) Click Startup Tab > these programs load when your netbook is turned on
C) Uncheck programs you do not want to load when your netbook is turned on (be sure you know what you're unchecking though) > reboot machine

3. Remove old files:

I've never run out of space on my 160 GB netbook hard drive, but one place you can free up some space is by going to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Select Disk Clean Up

Great list, see the original article here. Now the question comes to you - do you ever clean your netbook? Answer the quick poll here:

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