It is a given that things age, and break down. It is true for physical items, things tend to be subject to wear and tear, and eventually break down. Even financial instruments are not immune as money tends to depreciate. Hence, it is the same for computers and related systems, as eventually, one’s system tends to chug and slow down. Throwing out random issues, such as errors relating to vcruntime140_1.dll not found, or general choppiness, freezes, and other general issues.
Why does this happen?
- Just to reiterate the introductory points, general wear and tear lead to a slowdown of the system, as updates weigh the computer down. Computer Components only have the horsepower to last for a few years. New updates and features that support and are designed specifically for newer kinds of hardware are developed, making older parts chug and slow down when used on older computers. As a result, eventually, updates and similar feature creep result in systems slowing down.
- Viruses and malware sneak into the system. It is very common to see in the world of programming and computers, that the initial vector of a common virus is to impersonate system files and try to disguise themselves as system files. Executables are hard to impersonate, so the common cases involve Dynamic Link Library files, as a result, there may be cases where errors pop up relating to vcruntime140_1.dll not found, despite a similar file appearing to be present in one system directory upon an initial glance through the file list for the same. But, this file is likely to be an imposter, masquerading as a hardware virus or malware on one’s system.
- Running programs generates a lot of temporary files, such as crash dumps, leftover cached files, and recovery images. Upon initial analysis, one may say that just formatting said partition would solve this issue. However, there is no true way to genuinely wipe your system partition, as that would technically delete your Windows files and make the system inoperable. As a result, the buildup of these files is a natural issue that will invariably crop up over time. This necessitates regular cleanup and formatting of one’s system.
How to effectively format one PC?
Fortunately, there have been a lot of advances in this domain. Undertaking an exercise like this 10 years ago would have necessitated specific proprietary software to wipe one’s partition, and a ton of USB Flash Drives to make physical copies of one’s essential documents, images, spreadsheets, and presentations.
However, in today’s day and age, portable storage has gotten much cheaper. Gone are the days of 1 GB pen drives costing more than a thousand rupees. One can afford a high-quality external hard drive of a couple of terabytes for a cheap price. Hence, making the copying and storing process much easier. The idea of making the backups easier to do, streamlines the process to a high degree.
As Windows has developed, it has developed better options to be able to format your system partition, Windows 10 offers options by default for easy formatting, in a user-friendly and intuitive way. Gone are the days of accessing these commands through boot menus and convoluted command-line interfaces. Windows 10 offers simple options that enable amateur users to easily format their PC.