In a recent column, I walked readers through cleaning up temporary files on your computers. Now it’s time to tackle the dust build-up on the inside.

Air is pulled and pushed through your computer with a series of small fans. Good airflow is important to keep your system cool. Dust gets pulled in with the air and can get deposited inside your computer’s case. It’s an easy process to open your computer and remove the dust.

One quick word of caution: before opening your computer, make sure that it doesn’t void your computer’s warranty. Most allow you to open it up, but double check your warranty.

Before we start, here are a few safety items. Shut down the computer. I mean totally power it off. Next, disconnect all the cables from the back. It might be helpful to label each one with some masking tape for reconnecting. Finally, ground yourself; discharge any static electricity your body may hold. Touch something metal away from your PC or touch another person. Repeat this after you’ve removed the case, before touching anything inside the computer.

Most PCs these days are tower style; they stand tall on their ends. It will be helpful to find a place to lay your system on its side. If you choose the dining table, cover it with paper or a towel first to protect it. Find the side that opens and place it up. Loosen the case cover. Some systems use screws, others use some sort of latch. Carefully slide the cover off the system.

Let’s start at the back and top of the system. You’ll likely see a large silver box where the power cable exited it. This is your power supply. Note the fan entrance on the outside back of the case. Look around for the others inside the case. The ones along the outside of the case draw necessary air through the system for cooling. The smaller ones attached to parts of the computer draw heat off the components. If you find a fair amount of dust, even a few dust bunnies, in your computer case, there are several ways to remove them.

The simplest way is to flip the case over and dump it out. Large wads of dust should fall out this way, and guys, that means vacuuming the floor when you’re done. Second, I’ve found Swiffers or other cleaning cloths are effective at drawing out dirt. Be careful, though, not to get hung up on or knock the parts of your computer. Next, you can use a vacuum if you’re extremely careful. Simply holding the vacuum’s hose over the empty case may be sufficient. If a little more cleaning is needed, try a brush attachment to your vacuum’s hose. Again, use care not to bump the green boards inside your computeer.

Windows 98 Defrag Note

Most of the instructions included in this column are for Windows XP machines. Most times, the steps are similar for earlier versions of Windows. However, a recent article about disk defragmentation raised questions from Windows 98 users. Defragmentation or defrag under Windows XP is pretty forgiving, but under Windows 98 wants to run with nothing else running, including your screensaver. Before starting defrag in Windows 98, turn off your screensaver by right clicking on your desktop and choosing Properties, then click on the Screensaver tab. From the list of screensavers, choose None.