Clean Computer

We all have heard the importance of washing your hands in preventing the spread of germs. But think about how dirty your keyboard gets.

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Gary Noskin, MD, and his colleagues at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital did a test to see if bacteria found a friendly home on our keyboards, and if that bacteria could be easily spread to humans.

The bacteria that was tested was Vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE), methilicillin resistant (MRSA), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PSAE). All three bacteria are commonly found in nature, and can be life threatening.

The study found that MRSA and PSAE lived and grew on keyboards for 24 hours after contact. VRE was not as hardy, it only lasted for one hour. The researchers found people to touch the computer keyboards and covers and the test subjects gloved or ungloved hands would often pick up the bacteria.

So what do you do to protect yourself and keep your keyboard clean? First, wash your hands. Second, use a germicide like the one pictured just above on your keyboard as part of a regular cleaning regime.

Computers are very good at collecting dust, but externally and internally. When dusting your computer remember to never spray any type of liquid directly onto any computer component. If you must use a spray, spray it on a cloth first, and then use that cloth to rub down that part of the computer.

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When cleaning inside the computer, remember to turn your computer off first, you would not want to accidently damage anything in the process.
Some of the best tools for cleaning the computer are:

• A clean cloth is great for a wipe down of dust and debree.


• Water or rubbing alcohol work great to moisten your cloth. It is wise to avoid other cleaning products as they may be bad for the plastics that make up your computer.


• Cotton swabs are great for getting the gunk out of hard to reach places. It's best to moisten it first with alcohol to avoid a static shock.
  


• Portable Vacuums work very well at cleaning out the dirt, dust, hair, and other debree that can collect both inside and outside your computer.

Keeping your computer free of adware and spyware is of upmost importance. It's amazing how much unwanted software can pile up from websites whose intentions are to snoop on your privacy, deliver you unwanted ads, and generally clog and clutter your computer and slow its performance.

There are tons of programs that can remove adware and spyware, but the one that I use is called No Adware. It is great because if you are like the rest of us who use the Internet, you are infected with these applications. No Adware allows you to do a free scan to see what's there, then, if you want help removing it, they will help for a small charge. It's worth the free scan alone because you will be shocked at how much unwanted software has been cleverly installed on your computer.

If your system runs on Windows, than you have a Windows registry that needs to be cleaned from time to time. The Windows registry is a huge database that holds the complete inventory of every program that your PC holds. The more you install and uninstall software, the more full your registry gets, and the more important it is to clean it.

There is a great deal of software that does not clean up after itself when uninstalled and it leaves behind old and obsolete Registry entries. This slows down the speed of your computer. The more junk your Registry has in it, the slower your PC will run. In fact, it is common for a PC to crash all together as a result of a Windows Registry that is too full.

Error Nuker is one of the best in special utility programs that scans the Windows Registry on your PC to find errors and ways to optimize its overall performance.

Error Nuker is very careful with the Registry. It never deletes a Registry entry if ti would harm your system.