Cleaning the laptop touchpad == smooth & effective mousing

via liz revision by Liz on Feb 11, 2007

When left to my own devices I can spend up to 14 hours a day doing work / researching / internetting / blogging / promoting / making tracks. Being a girl who wears nailpolish and likes the foofy hand lotions, it needless to say starts accumulating on the touchpad of my laptop and make mousing rather frustrating. What’s the best way to clean it?

The manual says I should only use water and a dry cloth on the screen and case, but that doesn’t cure the gummed-up touchpad situation. I’ve tried 409 (which starts to take the paint off!), Dap — A hardwood floor cleaner, and Pledge furniture polish (just makes everything gummier–whoops!). I’m sure there are commercial products out there but I’ve been too impatient to wait around for something ordered off the internet to arrive, and somewhat distrustful of those anyway.

So what works for me? Windex–the streak-free glass cleaner, or diluted rubbing alcohol, about 50% water and 50% alcohol, although you can experiment with that proportion. Don’t use Windex on the screen EVER because it will etch or cloud the surface. I’d recommend testing either of those on a small corner with a cotton swap first to make sure it leaves the paint and surface intact. Easy!

And to prevent the product-accumulation after I use hand lotion, if it’s around I pour a tiny bit of alcohol on a cotton swap or kleenex and touch my mousing finger to it, since it removes the oil in that spot.