Why do Windows based PCs and Laptops appear to ‘degrade’ over time, appearing to run slower than when first purchased even after fresh Windows installations?

Question

Lots of variables I accept 《edited to remove personal view》

After say, five years, their performance is noticeably slower than it was when they were new, and the question is not in reference to increased graphical demands from games. The question is referring to day to day operations, web browsing and so on. Moving parts are limited, could they be the cause?

Thanks in advance

In: Technology

Answer 1

A lot of it has to do with Windows patches. Microsoft appears to do no performance testing on their service packs what so ever. So when you update your PC you are just piling on more load for it to deal with.

Either that or they purposely reduced the speed of older OSes to ensure people would upgrade. In addition to that if you have an old school spinning disk it might get fragmented. The ELI5 explaination for file fragmentation is that over time files get stored in a random and not at all organized way making it slower to find stuff. It’s like when you don’t organize your stuff for a while.

There can be other reasons but basically those two are the primary reasons I have found.

Source, been fixing computers for living since 1995