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

Most of that comes from installing more and mere software. A bit more comes from updates to the OS itself.

I have run into a number of really old Windows PCs that were doing things like controlling a machine and often not connected to any network. These thing worked as well as the day they were first put into use since nobody did anything with them other than the single static program to control that one machine.

On the other hand PC used by actual people will over time have more and more software installed on them get frequent updates to installed programs and drivers and the OS itself.

Lots of software has pieces of it starting up with the computer and running in the background taking up resources.

For example the sort of software packages printer manufacturers want you to install can be extremely annoying that way.

Less computer savvy users may end up getting tricked into installing all sorts of malware like seemingly helpful tools that promise to download things for them, but really just waste resources and spy on them.

Antivirus, while necessary is also a big resource-hog.

It also doesn’t help that some program like your average webbrowser are not the same as they were years ago. Features get added and improved and all sorts of bells and whistles may be added to the program so that the current version from today takes up more resources than the one from a few years ago.

If things get too bad a clean install might make your computer run again, perhaps not like new but at least a lot faster than before. Of course that would be an extreme step since you would first need to backup all your data and later reinstall all the programs you actually need.