Is it possible to restore my laptop to how it was working 5 years ago?

If you reinstalled Windows by Formatting (erasing) the HDD and installing Windows, you would have theoretically restored your computer to 5 years ago. Go to Start/Run and type chkdsk C: /R and press enter. Now type a Y and reboot the computer. the Check Disk utility will run at next boot up and try and fix any file errors.

Hi yudule,

That computer I must say is a bit aged but you can definitely use it still for browsing the internet. I recommend updating the computer hardware drivers on the computer and see if that speed things up. Go to Dell's website and install the latest chipset drivers, videocard drivers, sound drivers, network card drivers, etc.etc.etc.

Also open up "Msconfig" and uncheck any programs running at startup and in the background that you don't need. To get to Msconfig, click on start => run => type "msconfig" => and then the a window should appear. Click on the "Startup" tab and uncheck any programs that you don't need running. Reboot the computer and see if that helps too. Hope everything works out for you.