This month’s tech tip is from IT Bench Technician Vincent Bethel. Vince shares how to clean your computer equipment to help keep you and others safe, especially on shared equipment.
We often talk about how to keep your computer “clean” and safe from digital viruses, but we don’t often talk about physically cleaning your computers and other equipment. It is an equally important task. Even before COVID, keeping your PC clean helped protect it from dust buildup and other issues that can cause the machine to overheat or components to fail. If you would like to learn how to sanitize a computer properly without damaging sensitive and delicate components, read on!
With COVID still around it’s important to know how to properly sanitize your computer equipment. Follow these steps to insure your equipment is properly disinfected:
1. Power off equipment and disconnect power cords and peripherals
2. Spray disinfectant on cloth or paper towel, don’t spray directly on the computer
3. Carefully and gently wipe in a uniform manner. For screens, wipe in one direction with overlapping strokes from top to bottom.
4. Wait a few minutes for the computer to dry.
5. Wash your hands.
Need to clean your keyboard, mouse or other accessories? Follow the same instructions above. If you need to get into nooks and crannies of your keyboard, dampen a cotton swab with a little isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and use that to clean in the cracks. Be sure that your accessories are unplugged and powered off before cleaning, though! Not only is it an important step for making sure they remain in good working order, this step also prevents you from opening all sorts of random things on your PC during cleaning!
Need a virus cleanup or other more intensive “cleaning” for your PC or Mac? Call Facet today, or stop in one of our locations to find reliable, local help for tech problems.
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