Laptops can have their working lifetime increased by following a few simple care guidelines as well as buying the necessary items to prevent damage and cosmetic problems from occurring. Especially for mobile professionals who find themselves constantly on the move with their notebook, protecting your asset is an invaluable but often overlooked aspect to laptop ownership.

Granted laptops are subject to mechanical failures just as much as they're susceptible to scratches, blemishes, spills, gravity, and other unexpected hazards of day to day life but ensuring the safety and security of your machine will help increase its life expectancy as well as maintain its physical condition.

1. Use cases or bags to protect your laptop.

Having the proper carrying solution for your notebook computer could make all the difference when it comes to keeping your laptop looking and feeling like it just came from out of the box. This is especially true if you find yourself lugging your equipment from home to the office, classroom, local café, or on an airplane. Putting a layer of padding between your machine and the other contents of your bag, will significantly cut down on the amount of scratches, marks, and other cosmetic damages that your machine might incur during everyday commutes. Luckily there are a multitude of solutions for taking your laptop with you that span a variety of price ranges.

2. Keep your keyboard clean.

Use a soft cleaning cloth, the kind that won't leave fuzzy bits behind, to polish up those dull keyboard keys. For the more DIY-conscious of us, a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water or dish soap and used water will do just as effective as a job at getting grease, grime, and other gunk off your home row.

As for keeping the spaces between your keyboard keys clean, compressed air does wonders. Depending on what model laptop you own, spraying a liberal amount of compressed air through your typing surface will help aerate those little bits of dust, food, and other junk out of your laptop. For the most effective cleaning, work from one side of the keyboard to the other; don't just spray indefinitely between the keys. This will help corral the majority of the nasty bits stuck in the keyboard for easy cleaning later.

3. Learn to protect your screen.

By using a form fitted piece of rubberized shelf liner, sold at most home improvement stores, you can prevent a surprising amount of scratches and other blemishes from occurring. Just lay the rubberized mat across your keyboard before closing your machine's lid.

4. Clean LCD screen regularly.

Let's face it. Your laptop's LCD screen takes a lot of abuse. When they're not attracting dust particles or dander they're getting smudged, spilled, or sneezed on and at some point giving your screen a good cleaning becomes inevitable. Be warned though. Using household cleaners and other chemically enriched abrasive liquids can lead to all sorts of damage and corrosion on your precious display.

Use a 50/50 mixture of isopropyl alcohol (not rubbing alcohol since it might contain oil) and water. If available, a spray bottle will come in handy for applying the cleaning solution, but pouring some of the concoction on an old t-shirt or other fabric that won't leave behind lint works fine. Avoid using paper towels or dish rags as these may leave behind more debris than they've cleaned off.

5. Clean inside dust.

In order to keep your computer in tip-top shape one should get into the habit of banishing excess dust and other build up from inside their machine. However, getting to the guts of your laptop shouldn't be too much of a challenge. Most manufactures have engineered their notebooks so that if you remove the keyboard you'll have instant access to the motherboard and other core components of your computer. And this exercise might also void your warranty so check with your manufacturer before attempting to open your machine.

Once inside it should become clear to you which parts need a dusting and which do not. Give any heat sink or component with a fan attached to it a good burst or two of compressed air. These ducts, which are engineered to pull air across your computer's innards and out of the machine, are the first causalities of the dusty buildup. When the airflow is restricted by such build up a machine can run hotter and more sluggishly, impacting performance and the overall health of your laptop.

When using compressed air it's a good idea to only use short bursts of air instead of a steady stream. This will help conserve your can of air and it prevents damage to your laptop's delicate components.