Clean Your Screen First
Dust, fingerprints, and dried cleaning residue get mistaken for dead pixels, defects, and crease damage more often than you'd expect. It comes up across nearly every diagnostic page on this site: a smudge that looks like a dark spot, a speck that looks like a stuck pixel. Cleaning your screen first, before you run any test, saves you from chasing a problem that isn't actually there.
This isn't a general "how to clean your monitor" piece. The technique itself is genuinely simple and well established, you don't need ten paragraphs on it. What's actually useful here is specific to this site: how to clean without accidentally changing your display mid-wipe, and which screen to use for the inspection itself.
The safe technique, briefly
Turn the screen off, or at least dim it
Smudges and dust show up more clearly on an inactive panel, and you avoid accidental taps while your display is unlocked.
Use a soft, clean microfiber cloth
Dry first. Microfiber lifts dust without scratching the coating on most modern screens. A rough or dirty cloth, including one that's already been used elsewhere, can do the opposite.
If dry wiping isn't enough, dampen the cloth, not the screen
Use distilled water, not tap water, since tap water leaves faint mineral deposits behind as it dries. Never spray liquid directly onto the panel.
Skip harsh chemicals and paper towels
Ammonia, alcohol-heavy cleaners, and paper towels can all mark or dull a screen's coating over time. If your device maker specifies something different for your exact model, follow that instead.
Use Cleaning Mode so a stray tap doesn't change anything
Both the White Screen and Black Screen Test tools have a Cleaning Mode toggle in their settings. Turn it on before you start wiping, and the color swatches stop responding to touch, so an accidental tap while you're cleaning won't swap the display out from under you mid-wipe. Turn it back off in Settings when you're done. It's a small thing, but it's the difference between confidently cleaning a fullscreen display and constantly checking that you haven't bumped something.
Which screen to actually clean against
White and black reveal different things, and it's worth using both rather than picking one out of habit.
Use White Screen to spot dust, fingerprints, and smudges. They show up as visible marks against the bright, even background, which is exactly what makes white useful for the cleaning check itself.
Use Black Screen Test afterward, not for cleaning, but to check what the cleaning revealed. A clean black screen makes backlight bleed and IPS glow far easier to see than a dusty one does, and it's a good habit to check for those once the surface itself is actually clean.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a paper towel if I don't have a microfiber cloth?
Why does the site recommend distilled water instead of tap water?
Open White Screen and turn on Cleaning Mode →
Already clean and still seeing something? Start the full defect triage guide →
The cleaning method here matches what display manufacturers recommend for their own screens, nothing site-specific or unusual, checked so the cloth and water guidance won't damage screen coatings. What is specific to this site is the note on which tool setting to use while cleaning, which comes from how this site's own Cleaning Mode is built.
About the author
Ready Utilities was founded by Cedrick Reese, a retired veteran and web developer who enjoys building free, user-friendly online tools that simplify everyday tasks. Read more →