Knowing our readers here at Techerator, we’d assume that you pretty much live at your computer. You probably eat at your computer and designate your keyboard as a spill zone of sorts. So, like me, you probably can’t even imagine what kind of crap made its way inside.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to thoroughly clean your keyboard and seriously make it look and feel brand spankin’ new. Before we begin, though, it’s important to know that the method that I’ll be using is exhaustive, but it doesn’t require you to take apart your keyboard other than snapping off the keys. If you feel inclined to, you can clean your keyboard by completely disassembling it, removing the circuitry, and giving the shell and keys a scrub bath in the sink. Otherwise, follow along!

What You’ll Need

• A dirty keyboard
• A bowl of hot water (not scorching though)
• A cleaning sponge
• Q-tips
• A screwdriver
• Compressed air
• A camera

Disassembly

Before you begin any disassembly, take your camera and snap a photo of your keyboard. This is crucial because you’ll want to know where all of the keys go after you take them all off.

Start off by taking your screwdriver and carefully prying off each of the keys. I like to cover the key with my other hand to prevent the key from flying across the room after popping it off. You’ll also probably notice that some keys will be harder to remove, like the spacebar. These keys have metal rods attached to them that also attach to the keyboard. You can simply add a little more force to pop it off or if you want to be even more careful, you can get under the key to slide off the metal rod.

After all the keys have been removed, you should now be covering up your mouth to prevent projectile vomiting. You’ll probably notice all the gunk and crumbs that are lying about.

As you can see from the photo below, I’ve separated the “special” keys from the “non-special” keys. The special keys are much dirtier because of the little metal rods that are covered in grease, which attracted more gunk and crumbs.

Cleaning

Dump all of your keys into the bowl of hot water. Hot water helps to separate the gunk from the keys more easily. I put the special keys in a separate, smaller bowl as a mental note to clean those more thoroughly.

Let your keys soak for a while. In the meantime, take your compressed air and blow off all of the loose crumbs on the keyboard.

Next, get your cleaning sponge wet and begin to wipe up any gunk that stayed put, making sure to also clean the outside shell of the keyboard. Use the Q-tips to get to hard-to-reach places.

When you’re done with the overall cleaning, go back to your soaking keys and give each key one last cleaning with your fingers and then place them on a towel to dry.

Finishing up

Sometimes water will get into small crevices in the keys, which can be problematic since that’s a difficult area to air-dry. To fix this, simply blast a little compressed air into the keys to blow out any water.

After the keys are completely dry, you can then place them back on the keyboard. This is where you can play a fun little game and see if you remember where all the keys go. If you don’t know exactly, refer to the picture that you took earlier.

After all of that’s complete, you should be staring at a perfectly clean keyboard! Give yourself a pat on the back.

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All of this can wreak havoc on your machine’s speed and agility, but I’ll be listing off some tips and techniques for getting your PC back to how it should be.

Note: This guide is mostly geared towards novice computer users. However, I mention different tools and apps that still might be helpful for the geeks, and it also won’t hurt if you print this page out right now and lay it on a relative’s computer desk.

Delete Temporary Files

Files that are out of sight are definitely out of mind. Most likely your computer has tons of unused temp files just sitting there doing nothing. CCleaner is my favorite tool for cleaning up the unnecessary clutter. It’s extremely user-friendly and even if you don’t know what all the settings are, CCleaner automatically selects what is recommended, so all you have to do is press the big green button.

You’ll notice that CCleaner has a feature that will clean your PC’s registry, but it’s not necessary to utilize it. A lot of users think that cleaning up the clutter in the registry will increase your PC’s performance, but it actually doesn’t affect it all that much and you won’t notice a huge difference. Plus, messing around with the registry is pretty risky business anyway; one wrongly deleted registry file and your PC could start having some issues.

Programs-Be-Gone

Get rid of any programs that you no longer use. That nifty greeting card creator that you used to make your Mom’s birthday card two years ago isn’t going to delete itself. For Windows XP, simply navigate to Start>Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs. For Vista and 7, go to Start>Control Panel>Programs and Features. For Mac OS X, Simply drag-and-drop an application from the Applications folder to the Trash.

Deleting any unwanted programs you might have will most likely free up a lot hard disk space that you never knew you had. CCleaner can also delete any of your unwanted programs, and I personally believe that it does a better job at it than the Windows method. If you’re not sure what something is, it’s best to just leave it alone and not delete it, but a simple Google search will most likely let you know what it is and what it does.

Organize, Organize, Organize

I believe this is a key component to having a clean PC and ultimately a clutter-free mind. Organizing all your files and maintaining your frequently accessed folders is not only essential to having a clean machine, but also makes it easier for you to find stuff in the future. It’s also said that removing the tons of files and icons on your Mac desktop can speed it up a bit.

There are several tools that automate the organizing process like Hazel for Mac and Belvedere for Windows, but I personally like to organize manually. I put all of my music in the Music folder, all of my movies in the Movies folder, and all of my docs in the Documents folder. Sure, it takes longer and can be monotonous at times, but at least I know where I’m putting all of my files, and seeing where I put all of them helps me remember where they are for future reference.

Update Those Relics

Some of your programs most likely have an auto-update feature or give you a notification when a new version is available for download, but not all have these handy features or it’s even possible that auto-updates are turned off. Back when I ran Windows, I used FileHippo’s Update Checker to make sure all of my programs and drivers were up to date. What it does is check what programs and hardware your PC has installed and then checks its own online database of programs and drivers to see if it has a newer version than what you’re running. After it finishes checking, it’ll send you to FileHippo’s website where you’ll be presented with a list of all the programs and drivers you need to update, along with a handy download link for each.

For Mac users, a good alternative to FileHippo’s Update Checker is AppFresh.

As for updating Windows itself, most users have auto-updates enabled, so that’s not too much of a problem, but if you’re not sure what your update settings are, you can simply navigate to Start>Control Panel>Automatic Updates in Windows XP and Start>Control Panel>Windows Update>Change Settings in Vista and 7. I personally tell Windows to notify me of updates, but let me choose when to download and install them.

Mac OS X users can go up to the top-left corner and click on the apple icon, then click Software Update. From there, Apple will automatically search for system updates that need installed.

Shun Your PC of All Evil

We’ve all heard the V word before (“virus” for those who didn’t catch on). While it’s more than likely that you’ll know if you have a virus simply by the way you’re PC is acting up, several other forms of maliciousness are a different story. These little fellas can stake out on your PC for weeks before you even notice. Viruses and other malware alike, there are numerous programs out there that are great at getting the job done. You should definitely have an anti-virus program running at all times in the background. AVG offers a free version of their anti-virus program that’s just as great as the other programs that you usually would pay for.

Microsoft’s own Security Essentials is another free solution that can get the job done, but of course, the number one preventive measure for a malware-free computer is simply safe web browsing and common sense.

Defrag Your Hard Drive…Or Not?

Defragmentation is basically the process of squishing all data on your hard drive together into a tight space, that way seek times are reduced. With older operating systems, like Windows XP, it was pretty much required to defragment your hard drive every once in a while, but today’s operating systems do it automatically. The same goes for solid state drives. SSDs don’t need to be defragged, whether it’s on an older OS or newer. However, do make sure TRIM is enabled on your SSD if you’re running Windows 7.

If you happen to still be using Windows XP and need to defrag, go with a free, third-party program like Defraggler. It does a way better job than Windows’ built-in defrag utility.

Conclusion

So there you have it. You should now be staring at a refreshed computer that has been given quite an internal makeover. If you have any questions or other suggestions for spring cleaning a computer, please feel free to leave a comment.

Image Credit: awjmfotos

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