Two minutes and fifteen seconds. The desktop appeared, crisp and sharp. The mouse cursor glided across the screen with a fluidity I hadn't seen in years. I opened a browser—instant. I opened a heavy PDF—instant. The lag was gone. The Frankenstein had been resuscitated.
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When the process finished, the prompt was simple: Restart Required.
The hard drive whirred, a sound like a jet engine taking off. For ten minutes, the progress bar swept across the screen. Cleaning registry... Removing broken shortcuts... Defragmenting hard drive...