Windows PC has become very laggy over time – any solutions before reinstalling?

Question

I've had my Windows PC for a while, and it has become noticeably laggy – it wasn't like this when I first bought it.

Before I resort to reinstalling Windows, are there any other solutions I can try to restore performance?

I'm looking for practical steps like:

Cleaning up temporary files

Disabling startup programs

Checking for driver issues

Adjusting visual effects

Scanning for malware, etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

If all the steps you have perfumed have not resolved the lagging, to rule out system corruption as the underlying cause of the problem, you could try performing an in-place repair with the Windows ISO, this would not affect your files, settings or installed apps, do you have Windows 10 or 11 installed on your PC?