One should always try to keep their monitor as clean as possible. Try to prevent fingers and other objects from coming into contact with your computer screen. When it does come time to clean dust and smudges from your monitor, a gentle cloth and a gentler touch is necessary. The best offense is a good defense: don’t touch the screen! Those who work in an office won’t be able to keep others’ fingers off their monitor forever, and even if they do, said monitors will still collect dust and need to be cleaned. Before you start wiping away, here are a few important guidelines: 1. Do not use any sort of cloth with a rough texture that will scratch the screen. This includes paper towels. 2. Do not use harsh cleaning fluids. 3. Do not spray anything directly onto the screen. Dampen your cloth and then wipe the screen. 4. Be extra careful of sharp fingernails, especially when cleaning an LCD screen. With a smooth cotton cloth, gently wipe your screen free of dust, fingerprints and other smudges. If needed, dampen the cloth with a conservative amount of water, and wipe the screen again. If you have older CRT monitor that is extremely dirty, you can try to use a glass cleaner such as Windex on the screen to get rid of smudges and streaks. Do this only if your CRT has a plain glass screen – avoid using household cleaning agents on any monitor that may have been specially treated to reduce glare or radiation. These chemicals may damage any such treatment. Take extra care with flat screen monitors If you are cleaning an LCD monitor, or any other type of flat screen monitor, you must take extra steps to avoid damaging the screen. These types of monitors are very fragile (not to mention expensive), and their screens are soft to the touch. * Use only a soft cotton cloth to wipe the monitor — nothing with a rough texture that could potentially scratch the screen. Apple actually sends you a special cloth when you buy one of their widescreen HD monitors. * Press lightly and gently. Do not apply too much pressure to the screen. * Use only water, no household cleaning agents. If you must use something stronger than water, try applying a small amount of rubbing alcohol to your cloth. * Avoid direct contact between your hands and the screen. Especially watch your fingernails. Any sort of sharp edge can damage a flat screen monitor. Ultimately, you should use common sense when you clean your computer screen. Any computer part is a fragile and potentially expensive piece of equipment. Think twice about the materials and methods you are using to clean you screen, and when in doubt, just follow the directions above.