One of the things that most of us take for granted is the cleanliness of our laptop and other electronics.  But the truth of the matter is that a laptop is a dust magnet and the dust can cause the eventual failure of your notebook.

What you need to do is take the time to clean your notebook regularly.  For most people, you will only really need to clean it once or twice per year.  But if you live somewhere that is extremely dusty, or if you have pets (think dog, cat, etc.), then you should do it a little more regularly because the pet hair can end up in the laptop as well.

Cleaning a laptop is relatively easy – all you need is a can of air.  These can be found at most office supply stores and if you want a really good deal, Costco usually has the lowest price (typically half of the price of an office supply store, but you end up with a larger pack).

What you use the can of air to do is blow out all of the vents on the laptop.  The goal here is to get as much dust out of the laptop as possible.  You might want to do this somewhere outside or where dust won’t be a big issue as in some instances, you would be surprised at how much dust does come out of them.  Make sure to shut off the laptop before you do clean it.

You should also blow out the keyboard to get any dust and skin particles out of it.  Usually start at one side of your keyboard and work your way across to get everything out.

That’s it.  It should only take you about 10 minutes at the most and will ensure that your computer runs as cool as possible and will prolong your laptop life.