Computer Help and Support

I won't conspiracize that this was on purpose, but they would run slower and slower as malware accumulated and RAM was filled with unnecessary programs on boot, and the registry could seemingly get senile. People didn't know how to maintain Windows systems, and they weren't designed to prevent this without human interaction and maintenance that many people didn't learn.

Most who didn't know better just thought they needed a new PC almost every year because the current one "got old" and didn't work as well.

Modern Windows is a lot better. MacOS has always been more efficient and I think Microsoft took a lot of cues from them.