There are many ways to clean a laptop’s screen, but generally speaking the best method is to use plain white paper towels (meaning paper towels with no "fun" prints on them) and ammonia-free/fragrance-free glass cleaner such as "original" Windex, Glass Plus or whatever brand you choose to use. The combination of those two things is the most effective because it doesn’t scratch your screen (whereas tissue paper will because it’s an abrasive) and dries quickest because cleaning solution with fragrance added "sticks longer" for lack of a better term so the scent stays behind. For example, this scented Windex is something I don’t recommend for screen cleaning because where original Windex cleans and dries quickly, the scented one won’t. Yes, it still cleans proper, but dries slower.
If you’ve ever just cleaned a laptop screen and then in a certain light see it’s still dirty and missed a few spots, it’s because you didn’t have enough light when you were cleaning it.
A ridiculously easy solution to this is to clean the laptop outside on a bright sunny day. Sunlight will show every possible reflection on a laptop’s display and there is basically no way you can miss a spot. You might even see things you thought you cleaned but didn’t.
Obviously, you don’t want to keep your laptop display out in the sun because, well, it’ll literally cook. But sunlight is an amazing thing to see it all when cleaning so you don’t miss a thing.
Can you recreate this type of light inside?
Yes, but only if you have a silver reflector dome lamp. Those of you with traditional workbenches probably have one of these, and they work great because they can blast light over a work area easily without turning the area into a sauna in the process. But for those of you without that type of lamp, the sun is your best choice.
Can’t I just clean the screen next to the window where the sunlight is coming in instead?
Yes, this works – but only if the window is clean and there’s not a screen blocking any light.
Remember, the point here is that you want glare; you want the light to reflect off that panel so you don’t miss anything when cleaning. If you don’t, it’s very annoying to clean a laptop panel only to discover a few minutes later there were places you missed.
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Rich, I do wonder if some days you just take a few random words and then write an article based on them. People actually consume this stuff?
Here’s a few suggestions for future articles:
How your laptop is different to your car
Using a pet monkey to secure your PC
Which color laptop uses the most electricity
Is a 24″ monitor really bigger than a 19″ monitor
How to use the sun to see things
All in jest.
Carol
OK, I have to admit. I LOL’d at this one, Carol.
In all fairness, though, you should try coming up with fresh article ideas every day. Some days are better than others. You’re welcome to send over some real ideas.
Hah, great way to utilize the awful sun on our sreens!
http://goo.gl/dLQGm
Instead of using the plain paper towels I have good luck using the “microfiber” terry towels that they sell in autozone or similar autoparts stores, usually in a multipack. Of course you have to use the non-scented, plain Windex too as you mentioned. I always had a hard time getting the LCD screens perfectly clean on the first try using plain paper towels. It always seemed to leave some sort of residue behind. The microfiber towels seem to get it right the first time with little fuss. You just have to remember to spray the towel and not the screen.