Rules For Cleaning Your Computer
Never spray anything directly on anything. Put any liquid (water, alcohol, Windex, whatever) on a cloth, wipe or swab before applying it. Avoid solvents.
Clean the case
Wipe down all surfaces with a slightly damp (water) lint-free cloth. You should avoid using any solvents including alcohol on plastics if you can. If you have really stubborn stains adding a SMALL amount of dish detergent can help, and won’t hurt the case. Vacuum at all open areas and around the fan.
Clean the drives
For CD and DVD drives, just run the CD-ROM cleaner. This is disc with tiny brushes that will clean the lenses and in some cases motors as well.
For floppy drives (if you have any!) you can buy an inexpensive kit for the purpose. If you don’t want the kit you need to open up the drive and clean the heads, much like you would on an old cassette deck, but we’re not recommending that!
Clean the (desktop) keyboard and mouse
Here too you can wipe down all surfaces with a slightly damp (water) lint-free cloth. You should avoid using any solvents including alcohol on plastics if you can. Next use compressed air and blast gently along each row of keys. You may be surprised how much dust and hair flies out. You can vacuum a keyboard, but make sure to use a nozzle attachment small enough not to suck any of your keys
For an optical mouse just wipe off the finger smudges with a damp cloth. For a ball or trackball mouse, open the case (this is usually a quarter turn of a disc) and remove the ball. Use a cotton or foam swab dipped in alcohol to clean the crud off the internal rollers.
Clean the screen (s)
A glass CRT monitor can be cleaned with a little Windex or alcohol, like any glass surface. An LCD screen can be safely cleaned with a small amount of alcohol, but not any other solvent. While there are “screen cleaners” available and they work well, some adding anti-static properties, LCD screens are actually cleaned with alcohol by the computer companies who then tell you not to use alcohol to clean them. If you’re worried, you can use a very slightly water-dampened cloth.