I meet people all the time that struggle with their 2-5 year old gear, especially laptops. In general, Microsoft Windows is the problem. It is the most bloated, insecure, and inefficient operating system stack available for computing. You can try an alternative.
Ubuntu is what I would recommend. Many a soul has resurrected their machine and their love for the use of computers with a good Ubuntu install.
There’s even support for the ZFS filesystem (though it’s “EXPERIMENTAL”).
Source: Ubuntu 19.10: It’s fast, like “make old hardware feel new” fast | Ars Technica
