Emerald Green Glasses

When you're browsing on the internet, even with the good popup blockers incorporated into every modern browser, a few will get through. And when you get rid of them, you have to be careful because not all popup's are benign. One favorite malevalent popup looks a lot like the standard alert window and reads "Warning, your computer is infected with Spyware! Please Run a full scan" Or "Please click here to download Spyware remover."

Naturally, clicking yes will usually INSTALL spyware on your system, and often also a "Spyware removal" Program that does nothing useful, but keeps putting up big messages of how you need to pay to set up the full version.

And the nasty thing is that some of the malware writers have mannaged to set up commands to try and interpret anything, including clicking the shutdown button in the top right corner of the popup as a command to download the malware.

Fortunately, there's a very simple way to shut down the problematic window without actually clicking it. In the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, a separate item opens for each separate window. Moving the mouse over the item and clicking it will reveal the menu.  As you can see, it not only offers a way to close the program, but also reminds you of the keyboard shortcut to do so(The Alt key is by default next to the keyboard, and the F4 key is above the number keys.  You work the shortcut by holding down the Alt key and the tapping the F4 key).  Clicking Close should shut down the popup without problem.  You can also use the keyboard shortcut to shut down the popup, but you have to first bring the popup to the front of the screen by clicking it?s button on the taskbar  (Which is why I tend to use the right button..

Either option will usually be all you need.  However sometimes, a popup can be engineered so that it's even harder to close, generating authorization requests that can disrupt the right click menu trick.  Now with a little patience and judicious use of Alt+Tab to target the bad stuff, you can use to Alt and F4 shortcut to whittle down the authorizations and popup's anyway's.  But if you can't remember the correct keyboard shortcuts (I usually have to right click to look it up myself), there's a fast alternative.  Ctrl+Alt+Del.

A lot of windows users called Ctrl+Alt+Del the three fingered salute back when it was used mainly as a shortcut to shut down the system in the earliest windows version.  In the modern operating system though it's much more versatile.  Holding down the Ctrl and Alt keys  (Which should both be on the same line as the spacebar), you then tap the Del or Delete key.  In XP this loads the Task Manager, in Vista you get a list of several options, including to load the task manager.

In any case, what you want to do is open the task manager.  It's actually a very useful program that not only let's you look at various programs running on your system, but also lets you review hidden processes, check how your system's performing and more.

But for now the goal is to kill the popup.  I'm demonstrating with a benign popup of course, but the task manager is also the best way of killing malicious popup's too.  Just click the popup so it's highlighted, then click the End Task button at the bottom of the task manager window.  If there's anything making it tricky to shut down the program it might open a message window saying that the program isn't responding and asking if you want to shut it down or wait.  Clicking Shut Down will basically override all the tricks and shut down the popup without offering any chance for other built in tricks to try to start.

In addition to routine cleaning, keyboards are often subjected to spilled liquids. If this happens, the very first thing to do is to disconnect your keyboards power. If it plugs into the back of your system, pull that plug immediately. If it’s a wireless keyboard, remove it’s batteries immediately.

Ok, now that you’ve unplugged the keyboard, you can take a moment to consider the problem. Spilled liquids bring two threats to the table as far as keyboard functionality is concerned. First of all, there’s the threat of a short circuit. This threat is the reason you want to immediately cut power to the keyboard. It’s also the reason that whatever other cleaning you do, you’ll want to let the keyboard sit afterward for at least 24 hours (longer on humid days) to ensure its internals are completely dried out.

Your other concern is residue. If the liquid you spilled was just an ordinary glass of water, residue will not be much of a problem. If it’s unsweetened coffee, tea, or diet soda, residue might give you problems, but the danger is not as severe as if there was sugar dissolved in it.

The key to blocking residue is to dissolve it with water. Since your keyboard is only vulnerable to short circuits when its plugged in, putting it in your shower and spraying down the keyboard is a very good precaution against residue. If you have a keyboard that was disabled by a spill, there’s a chance you might be able to clean out the residue using your shower like this.

I’ve even heard that some people has successfully cleaned out a spill disabled keyboard by running it through their dishwasher. I’ve never tried this myself, so I can’t offer any personal input on it. But rationally this would probably work best if whatever was spilled on your keyboard contained a fair bit of fat like ice cream. The most important thing to remember would be to put your keyboard on the top shelf of the dishwasher, since the plastics making it up are vulnerable to melting.

Now whatever method you use to wash the residue out of your keyboard, you’ll need to let it dry out afterward. Be sure that you let it dry at least 24 hours, and be sure to reposition it a few times during that drying period. Repositioning it will help ensure the keyboard doesn’t retain small pools of water inside it that could wet things again when you plug it back in.

And once you’ve waited the recommended 24 hours (if not a little more), you’ll want to plug it into your system and give it a test run.

As the components of the computers that gets the most direct contact with you, your mouse and keyboard will have the most need for regular cleaning. Though when I say cleaning, I also mean disinfecting. Your keyboard and mouse can pick up significant volumes of bacteria through handling, and rubbing alcohol wipes do perfect double duty at killing the bacteria and cleaning whatever’s stuck to the plastic making up your keyboard and mouse.

The first step is to dislodge the large stuff (It’s surprising how much there is.) Take your keyboard, turn it upside down, and shake it side to side and backward and forward for a minute or two. Afterward, direct your can of air into the cracks between the keys, and spray in short bursts to knock loose the smaller dust. You can likewise use your air to blow dust loose from under the buttons on your mouse.

Once you’ve dusted your mouse and keyboard, you then take an antibacterial wipe, and gently wipe the keyboard and keys. Then wipe down your mouse and it’s buttons. Once finished, give your keyboard a few moments to dry and it should be good as new. If you don’t have antibacterial wipes, you can use a paper towel, dampened with a very small amount of rubbing alcohol.

Most systems use LCD monitors, replacing the old CRT monitors. The most visible difference between them is the thinness of LCD’s. But in cleaning terms, there’s another important difference. CRT’s have screens made of glass, while LCD’s screens are made of plastic.

The majority of monitors sold in the last few years were LCD monitors. Their screen is made of a plastic that’s much more prone to scratching than the glass of older monitors, making glass cleaner and paper towels a bad choice. To clean it, you need a specialized piece of equipment, a microfiber cleaning cloth. Either as is, or with a light misting of water, wipe down the screen, being careful not to apply too much pressure to it. That’s usually all you need.

If you’ve held onto your old CRT monitor, you should already know that regular glass cleaner is the best tool for cleaning the screen. But, it’s important to keep in mind that if you spray the cleaner directly on the screen, it can drip down through the gap in the front, and get water onto certain components that you very much want to keep dry if you want your CRT to keep working. So you should only spray the cleaner onto a paper towel and use the dampened cloth to clean the screen.