Clean sweep

There’s a simple solution that will let you clean the mouse and keyboard of your computer without having to shut down the system — it’s called Toddler Trap. Amit Agarwal tells more.

It's spring cleaning time and you're keen on getting rid of that bit of dirt on the surface of your keyboard and that wax sticking to the bottom of your mouse. You can easily clean the two with a piece of soft cloth, but the problem is that your computer is turned on so there's a risk that you may accidentally hit keys that will close some important windows or mess up with the Word document that you are currently writing.

Fortunately there's a simple solution that will let you clean the mouse and keyboard of your computer without having to shut down the system — it's called Toddler Trap.

Disabled at a click
Toddler Trap, available as a free download for Windows at http://bit.ly/ttrap, is a tiny utility that temporarily disables the mouse and your computer keyboard keys in a snap. So there's zero risk of accidental clicks while you clean the hardware. When you are done, simply press the red close button with your mouse and the computer will return to its original state.

While it is also possible to lock a computer by hitting the Windows + L keyboard shortcut, the advantage with Toddler Trap is that it doesn't change your screen, so you can clean the computer even while you're watching a video on YouTube or listening to music.

Amit writes a technology blog at www.labnol.org