mouse next! turn the mouse upside down, and take off your mouse cover. and remove the mouse ball. use the cloth and a little alcohol to clean that off. look in side carefully and look at the rollers. you may need to scrap some gunk off of them. my fave way is to use a pencil eraser...and loosen it...watch the droppings though. make sure they fall out. then wipe the rollers with a swab with some alcohol on it.. let it all dry well and reassemble. wipe outside of mouse with cloth then...and pay attention to the bottom. clean the little 'skidders' on bottom too. if you have a mouse pad with a hard top, wipe it off well. ~ if you have an optical mouse or one with no ball ~ clean the mouse pad and contacts with cloth and a little alcohol . <~  i clean my mouse and keyboard at least once a week..... 

now the big thing!!! take case off of computer. carefully!  now use that compressed air to blow all the dust and grime out of your comp.  don't over use. it can corrode. i don't use a vacuum, some do...be careful and ground yourself before you attempt that. and use a plastic brush or attachment only! you can short out your motherboard. make sure you blow it all out,  especially around power supply and fans, and floppy drives. next clean off the exterior and openings with alcohol and a soft cloth.

disconnect your surge protector/power back up and shake it off well. then blow it out with the canned air. now is the time to look and see if you can hang the surge protector on the wall or the side of the desk. less junk will fall in it then. you might take a few minutes to see if its better to  hang it on the wall or side of the desk.  one nail will keep all the junk out of it and may save you problems later. i had a nice spark festival with a surge strip recently that apparently had a staple fall inside a socket. zap!!!!  uh huh.... i think the hammer is in the drawer by the sink....

then use a cloth with a little alcohol on it to clean the case and front of the monitor. if you have an lcd screen DON'T PRESS.  dust the top and back of the monitor well and check underneath for any paper or dust bunnies that might be stuck there. 

now plug everything back in and replace covers. before i put comp back in place i wipe the table off with a dryer sheet. just a quirk of mine :)

ready to clean up your hard drive now? sure ya are!

lets clean the INSIDE!!!!

Tools you need :this is what you need ... canned air, alcohol (no not beer =o)~), cotton balls, cotton swabs, a few soft clean cloths. time and patience. any other tools you find that work ~ great !

Terms: 

peripherals : means scanners, cams, mouse, keyboard 

Similar links....

Clean the INSIDE

Scan Disk

Defrag

TIP!: if you have printers or other items used with your comp, now is the time to blow all the dust from them. especially printers. they accumulate dust and paper fragments and can really reduce the quality of your printing. clean cases and covers with that clean cloth and use a little alcohol if necessary.

How often should i clean my comp like this?  

Personally i clean the dust bunnies out of my comp 3 or 4 times a year. with all the cats and dogs here, the fur factor is high. you may be okay with once a year. if your FAN intake looks like this.... its time...