Spring is in the air and all of your tech devices could use a good spring cleaning if you want them to last longer, experts say.

Carlo Tuzzolino, service department manager at Computer Direct in Madison Heights, Mich., recently in the Detroit Free Press offered some of the following spring-cleaning tech tips:

Don’t let dust clog your computer. Dirty computers can collect dust inside that can jeopardize performance. He recommends using a can of compressed air to remove dust and other debris.

"Eventually if you get enough dust, it'll start to conduct electricity," which causes to computer to run less efficiently, Tuzzolino says.

Clean smudgy screens. Tuzzolino recommends using Windex or an equivalent everyday glass cleaner to clean screens and monitors. But he cautions, “if you get any of that liquid to drip inside, it can do some damage," so spray the liquid on a paper towel first before applying.

Remove unnecessary programs. Is your computer being bogged down with too many computer programs? For example, besides an antivirus program, do you have any other programs running constantly in the background? If so, Tuzzolino recommends checking your system preferences (on the Mac) or control panel (for PC) to delete any start-up items that aren’t necessary. He also recommends using free programs, such as Malwarebytes or CCleaner, which can track unneeded and malicious software on your computer.

And for Android smartphone users, he recommends trying Advanced Task Killer, a mobile app that will tell you every app that is running on your smartphone--some you may not even know about. Android smartphones allow you to run multiple apps at the same time, but that can slowdown performance.

Source: “High-Tech Spring Cleaning: Dust, Wipe, Fix Up, and Declutter Devices,” Detroit Free Press (April 18, 2011)