Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on November 14, 2007 by CyberNet.

Ashley has already covered the different ways to clean your keyboard, but have you ever tried to clean your keyboard or mouse while the computer was on? I’ve done it, and the result is programs and files unexpectedly being opened, or even worse getting deleted. It’s almost like closing your eyes and typing on the keyboard … you just don’t know what’s going to happen.

What I normally do to get around this is lock my computer or put it in standby, but I thought to myself that other people had to be having the same problem as me. So I ventured out looking for a program that would lock both the keyboard and mouse so that they could easily be cleaned. That’s when I came across Donation Coder’s ToddlerTrap. The program requires no installation, and you don’t need to have AutoHotKey installed if you download the EXE (click the little floppy disk symbol on the site).

The program basically intercepts any keyboard or mouse inputs and makes the computer think that the key was never even pressed. The entire program, pictured above, consists of a text box and a close button. The text box is a little bit deceiving because it shows what key is currently being pressed on the keyboard. My initial thought was that this is used to create some sort of hotkey for the program, but it actually serves no real purpose.

The keyboard and mouse lock is automatically activated once the program is started, and it is disabled when the program is closed. Don’t worry, you can still move your mouse around the screen with ToddlerTrap activated, and the red X on the program is the only thing that is clickable.

So now you have an easy way to clean your keyboard and mouse without having to suffer from adverse effects. And I guess you could use this program for its intended purpose, which is to prevent young kids from messing anything up on the computer.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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