Last time I had my case cracked open, I followed along with a great guide from PC Stats.Here's the basics.
What you'll need (from left to right):
- A Phillips head screwdriver.
- Mechanical oil with a dropper.
I used 3-in-1. PC Stats does not recommend WD-40. - A can of compressed air.
Pick one of these suckers up at any computer supplies or electronics store, like RadioShack.
First, prepare the computer for cleaning.
Before anything else, back up all your data. (Better safe than sorry.) Then disconnect the power cord, monitor, keyboard, mouse and any other peripherals. Take the tower to a well-lit place outdoors on a porch or to the garage, or maybe to the basement. Do not skip this step because the compressed air is going to blow up a cloud of dust and chemicals you don't want in your home office or in your eyes or nostrils any more than absolutely necessary. Open up the case. My Dell goes on its side and when you push the release on the top and bottom, it slides open like a Delorian. Your case may (most likely will) vary. Consult your computer's manual for how to get yours open.
Next, create a dust storm.
Use the can of compressed air with the thin narrow straw attached to the nozzle to blow the dust off all the components inside your PC's case. Keep the can upright as much as possible to avoid liquid coming out of the can, but if it does, it shouldn't harm the computer's innards. Don't do this near kids or pets, and know that as you use the can, it will get cold in your hand. Be sure to get into all the cracks and crevices, and do dust the grill on the back of the machine as well. PC Stats says that compressed air should not be used to clean fan blades because it will make them turn faster than they were meant to and this could cause harm. The fan is plastic anyway and can be cleaned with a damp cloth, which we'll do next.
Thirdly, clean the fan.
There are two main fans in your computer: one inside the power supply and one over the processor. (Your computer may have more, but most computer have at least these two.) The power supply fan on my machine was sealed tight and inaccessible; so I cleaned it as much as possible from the outside grill. We care about the fan over the computer processor. Airborne dust, pet hair, smoke and particles can build up over time and slowly break this fan down and eventually overheat your computer. Some cleaning and a drop of oil can prevent this type of catastrophe, or at least put it off.
In my particular Dell (a Dimension series), the processor fan is covered by a green hood that flips up and snaps off. Using the screwdriver, dismount the fan from the inside of the machine without disconnecting the cords. Wipe down the plastic blades and casing with a damp cloth. I'm not a smoker or a pet owner but you can see my fan was blackened with dust.
Finally, lube the fan mechanism.
Pull up the sticker on the fan. PC Stats says some computers may have a rubber plug over the bearing inside; my computer did not. If yours does, pull up the plug with a fingernail or screwdriver. Then place one single drop of oil over the axle part which turns the fan.
Then replace the sticker and remount the fan, hood and any nearby parts you had to remove to get to it.
Before you close up your case, make sure all the connections inside your PC are tight and that no wires are hanging loose or pulled too tight. Firmly tighten any screws mounting PCI cards or drives and close up the case. Return the PC to its home location, reconnect all peripherals and boot up. If possible, place the machine on your desk instead of on the floor to reduce dust exposure.
After the cleaning, your lubed-up, clean PC should run quieter with a much reduced chance of a hostile dust bunny takeover - that is, until the cat starts rubbing up against it.
When the Mac App Store launched in January, we debated whether it 
Let's assume you log onto a bunch of different websites; Facebook, Gmail, eBay, PayPal, probably some banking, maybe a few discussion forums, and probably much, much more. Consider a couple of questions:
Your Windows system tray and Mac OS X menubar have become prime real estate for highly functional micro-applications that provide easy access to information, settings, and tasks. Here are our top ten favorites for both Windows and Mac.
GoogleDocsNotifier has a pretty descriptive name, so it probably comes as no surprise that it notifies you of new and unread Google Docs that show up in your account. If you want to access any of those docs as they come in, you can just click them in the GoogleDocsNotifier panel and they'll open up in your default web browser.
For those of you out there who have trouble watching your hard drive space and are surprised to find it filled to the brim, TrayDiskFree provides you with a tiny little indicator to let you know how much space you have remaining.
GMinder provides you with system tray-based access to your Google Calendars. If you have upcoming events, it can alert you so you don't miss them. All you have to do is sign in with your Google account and it'll start downloading your calendar info right into your system tray.
ClipCube is a system tray utility that records your clipboard history, making it easily accessible when you need it and out of your way when you don't. As an added bonus, if you have a URL in your clipboard history, ClipCube will let you simply click on it to bring it up in your default web browser.
If you want easy access to all your open Windows, Minime can help you out. Minime provides you with a simple list of all the windows so you can access them easily from a tiny little icon.
If you use multiple monitors, UltraMon is a must-have. Along with other great features, one of the most handy UltraMon's extension of the task bar. If you have a window on one monitor and minimize it to the task bar, it only shows up on the portion of the task bar that's on that specific monitor. Along with unified wallpaper and other handy features, UltraMon is very, very useful for multi-monitor setups. The only real downside is that it's pretty expensive ($39), but they do give you a free trial so you can see if it's worth it for you.
QuickSync lives in your system tray and is a super quick, super easy to set up folder synchronizing utility. You just drag a folder on the QuickSync drop zone and set up any synchronization rules you want. You can schedule a sync so it happens automatically, and you're provided with several great options for dealing with sync conflicts.
Fences is a little Windows micro-app that organizes your desktop icons into neat little sections that you can label and move around as you please. It's incredibly handy for keeping your desktop neat and organized, and looks pretty great too.
FluffyApp is basically a third-party port of the handy Mac micro-app CloudApp (which you can read more about in the Mac section of this post). FluffyApp sits in your system tray and uploads any file you drag onto it. It'll provide you with a link as soon as it's done so you can easily email that link (or do whatever you want with it).
AutoHotKey is an incredibly little app that lets you write scripts to automate practically anything on your Windows system. You can even create applications with it, such as 
Captur makes it easy to take screenshots by sticking all your options up in the menubar. What's really great about it, however, is the custom options you have. It'll let you see the screenshot immediately after you take it and save the filename however you like.
Camouflage does one simple little thing: it hides everything on your desktop. Maybe you want to do this to make your screencasts look nice and clean, or maybe you just suck at keeping your desktop tidy. Whatever the case may be, Camouflage will let you pretend there's nothing on the desktop by hiding it for you. You can even have it change your desktop picture in the process.
Clipboard History is a handy little tool that, unsurprisingly, stores your Clipboard History in your OS X menubar. You can set it to remember few to several items copied to your clipboard and easily restore any of them with a click or a keyboard shortcut.
QuietRead quietly sits up in your OS X menubar and stores URLs you just don't have time to visit right now. It makes for an excellent, minimalist storage area for your web backlog, and it can do a whole lot more if you pay for the full version. Like what? Searching, syncing to sites like Instapaper and Read It Later, and additional sharing features are just a few examples.
Apptivate is a neat micro-app that lets you assign keyboard shortcuts to applications so you can launch them easily with your keyboard. You can also assign these shortcuts to other things, such as AppleScripts, which can be seriously useful for quick script-based actions.
Mac OS X's built-in screen sharing (read: VNC) functionality is wonderful, but quickly connecting to your shared screens is not always a pleasant task—especially if you're connecting to your home computers from a remote network. ScreenSharingMenulet solves all these problems by putting your local shared screens in your menubar while also letting you add easy-to-select shortcuts for any remote screens you may want to connect to when away from home.
Snippets is as lightweight as you get for a text expansion app. It primarily resides in your menubar, but you can bring up a single window for editing. It's very simple, keeps out of your way, and, at $5, is significantly less expensive than every other text expansion app you can buy on the Mac. While it wasn't the winner in our 
It's not terribly inconvenient to access your calendars by going to Google Calendar or iCal, but it's especially convenient to have a rundown of your day in your menubar. Additionally, if you have events in multiple places (specifically Google Calendar, iCal, and Facebook), CalendarBar can summarize them all for you and even alert you via
Autograph is a micro-app that'll run you $3, but it's pretty awesome. If you ever need to sign a document or get some handwritten text into your computer, Autograph can solve that problem by letting you use your multitouch trackpad as a writing surface. It basically turns your trackpad into a pen tablet. You can sign with your finger, but you can also 
CloudApp is incredibly simple: it sits in your menubar and when you drag a file onto it, that file gets uploaded to the cloud. You're instantly provided with a link in your clipboard and can send it to whomever you like. CloudApp even provides the storage for you.
