I’m talking defrag, registry cleaning, browser cache etc. so the pc isn’t cluttered with junk from the last years. Is this just physical, electric wear and tear? Is there something that can be done to prevent or reverse this?
In: Technology
It’s a combination of factors:
More tasks / software bloating – The strongest of these is that normally you are asking your computer to do more tasks than before – some of this is subtle stuff brought in with Windows Updates and especially Chrome updates. Chrome started nice and efficient and a hell of a lot faster than Internet Explorer but has slowly gotten fatter and fatter. But it’s not solely the browser’s fault. As PC Processing Power, PC Memory, Browser Stability and internet speeds have all generally increased so websites have gotten more and more resource intensive (especially with the copious amounts of various advertising they force on you). The same holds true for a lot of software out there – that as PCs become more powerful so the software changes to leverage more of that power.
Security, security, security – A HUUUGE part of OS, browser and software updates is security based. It’s very, very seldom that security updates result in increased speed or performance.
Failure Rates – RAM, CPUs, GPUs, HDDs, SSDs all have failure rates and these tend to get worse over time especially if there’s significant heat in your system. I not talking total failure I’m talking bad sectors, I’m talking memory parity errors. Modern day OS and firmware do an immensely good job at handling this invisibly. Often you may not be aware that you have bad sectors at all. The sector has been discretely marked off limits and a replacement sector has been allocated. But when that happens it’s basically introducing a permanent fragmentation onto your drive.
OS / Registry scarring – Back in the good of days of Windows 98 it was a pretty regular thing to reformat your system at least once a year – sometimes due to a complete OS crash – but often wanting to have a clean version on because over time you add and remove programs, you get the occasional virus, you run registry cleaners and you install a ton of updates and well as any tinkering you may have done yourself in the registry. This all leads to the registry and system files not functioning as well as it should. Registry cleaners are a mixed bag – they spot a lot of problems but their solution is to delete the problems.
Top Recommendations:
Antivirus – check that you only have one anti-virus on your system and that’s it’s not McAfee. Multiple antivirus apps will interfere with each other. These days Windows Security is an excellent choice for your antivirus needs.
Switch to an SSD – If you haven’t switched yet and you can afford it I would highly recommend it. It’s faster and doesn’t suffer from fragmentation (assuming you don’t live with your system drive 99.95% full). HDDs are still good for storage drives by your system and games should be running off an SSD.
Clean install – Especially if you’ve upgraded between windows versions or even between major builds you will be surprised how much better your PC will run on a fresh system. This goes well with upgrading to an SSD. Download the USB installer from Microsoft’s website and get a completely fresh version of Windows with no manufacturer bloatware on it. Do make sure tht you’ve backed up EVERYTHING you need: files, passwords, websites.
Remove software that you’re not using – especially any software that installs it’s own services. I try where possible to use portable versions of applications – that way you know that they’re not cluttering up your registry, system files and services. Also always check if there isn’t a windows app that does what you want already.
Hosts file – Use your hosts file to block advertising sites – this is fairly technical and I don’t recommend for the average user but it’s preferable to using ad blocker software. It’s a fast, nasty but uncomplicated firewall essentially. What I do when I find a website that’s running slow it I analyze that particular website on [webpagetest.org](https://webpagetest.org) – I identify the external links which are causing delays and block those via my hosts file.
Upgrade you memory – definitely these days if someone has only 4gigs my instant recommendation is upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. Running Windows 10 you want 8gigs minimum.
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