How Can I Clean My Keyboard?
My
keyboard is filthy. I try not to eat at the computer, but you know how it is.
And there's all the cat hair. Is there some way to clean the keyboard? And how
can I avoid this in the future?
The obvious answer is to get rid of
the cats and don't eat at the keyboard.
Ken’s a cat lover, and he’s well
aware that telling you to get rid of a cat to keep your keyboard clean is like
asking you to stop breathing. The simple answer is: To clean your keyboard you
can use a damp cloth which you just rub on the keys to take off the filth. Really,
it works. You probably want to turn your computer off before you do it, to
avoid typing all sorts of stuff into your current document. And don’t get water
or any liquid into the workings of your keyboard. Nothing good ever comes from
liquids meeting electronic equipment face to face.
Ken, being slightly retentive, has found
that using rubbing alcohol (most conveniently, in those sterile alcohol pads
that people use before getting a shot) works very nicely too. Beware of rubbing
too hard and removing the paint that has the letters marked on your keyboard,
and just as when using water, ensure that you don’t get alcohol into the
workings of your keyboard.
You could, of course, replace your
keyboard. This is simple to do if you’re using a desktop computer, but it’s a
little more complicated if you’re using a laptop. Note that although your
laptop manufacturer might want to charge you an exhorbitant price to replace
your laptop keyboard, you can often find third-party keyboards online at http://www.newegg.com or http://www.amazon.com, and they’re usually far
cheaper than keyboards from the original manufacturer. If you’re queasy about
opening up your laptop to replace the keyboard, any computer professional can
do it for you.
Finally, we recently noticed that
Logitech, a company that makes peripherals for computers, has released a
washable keyboard. You can dump it in the sink and wash it with a few dishes
and it comes out perfectly clean and usable again. All the keys are sealed so
it's unlikely to get cat hair inside, and it looks pretty good to us. Ken tried it out at a local store and liked
the way it felt. If you’re interested in
a washable keyboard that works well, try out the Logitech washable keyboard,
model K310 (http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/washable-keyboard-k310).
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