nikhil.io

A reasonable and normal human being would prepare to clean their laptop’s keyboard by getting together a cleaning cloth (e.g. microfiber) and solution (e.g. isopropyl alcohol). They would then power down their laptop and clean their keyboard (and maybe trackpad and screen) before pushing the power button on again.

That last part would not get you promoted at Apple. When your MacBook is shut down, any key is the power key. Because fuck you and your reasonable expectations.

The official guidance is to employ a can of compressed air. Make sure it’s really compressed so it gets rid of both debris and grease.

You can also issue terminal incantations, and hold down several keys and the power button in the shut down state (which is not guaranteed to work on newer laptops)¹.

In your (unreasonable) frustration, you can make a lovely, free, & helpful little utility that addresses this problem and attempt to publish it to the App Store. It will be rejected as being “not useful” because Apple, run by visionaries who care deeply about design, knows better and would really love it if you shut the fuck up.