I'm sort of new to LCD displays in general. I got my first one on my laptop that I got for graduation this summer, and I just recently purchased a 17" flat panel monitor for my desktop. At first, I just tried really hard never to even touch the screens (just because that's the way I am with all of my stuff when it's new--I baby it). What I found out, however, was that once the first little "spot" appears on the monitor (i.e. spit from sneezing or something), it's all downhill from there. Once you try to wipe something off on these things, you just smear it and make it worse. Then you try to clean the smear, and you make an even bigger smear. I've tried all sorts of things to get them clean--I've even tried using the silk cloth and glasses cleaner that I have, and that doesn't even work (despite how many CDs I've saved like that). I just recently bought a $10.00 pack of "I-clean" cloths or something like that from Fry's (they're supposed to be for I-Macs). I used that, and it just makes the screen look greasy.

Any tips on keeping these displays looking new (or at least consistiently "dirty" or something)?

Thanks!

When you scored those "iClean" things from Fry's, were you looking where all the other similar wipes were kept? I know the Campbell Fry's and the SJ Brokaw aztek lookin Fry's also keeps wipes specifically for LCDs in that section.

Those are what I use to keep it clean. Used to use just a warm wet cloth, but these seem to work better.

edit: by "wet" I mean "slightly damp"

I once read that you could use Windex on a LCD monitor, any truth?

While I can't think of any technical reason why one wouldn't be able to, there's probably some chemical in windex that damages the screen.

Then again, that kind of thinking might just be the result of years of propaganda saying "only use LCD wipes" on the screen, put forth by the LCD wipe industry.

if you use windex type stuff on lcd's much it can damage them. i used to work for a large restaurant chain in tech support - the workstations they used had lcd's and inevitably they'd use windex to clean them. a few times didn't really hurt but years of having them, the damage became more and more visible until we'd have to dispatch a vendor's tech out and the store would get charged for damaging the screen... fun stuff.