I have a computer. Dell. 7 years old.

Always a great little computer.

Now runs VERY SLOW.

Reluctant to take to repair shop because of all my confidential data on it.

Suggestions?

God Bless.

Dale

start by clearing your temp files

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-delete-temporary-files-in-windows-2624709

Before you do anything, back up your files if you have not already done so.

If clearing your cache (this will clear your internet history too, so be prepared when you start typing www.t the rest will not fill in) and the temp files that bigbob mentions...it's probably time for a new one. They are cheap enough now, it's hard to pay someone to work on a 7yo one.

Good luck and as The Dude mentioned, make sure you have stuff backed up.

I started using PC mover from BestBuy. $40. It is very easy to use and transfers everything.

It will transfer the licenses for MS Office, but something that old, MS may not let the license be reactivated. MS sucks.

I'm on a dell that's pretty old and i'm on my second hard drive but that's my fault by taking it to a repair shop.First thing they said was "my hard drive is bad and it needs a new one" so I let them do the work on it.If I had of thought I could of used my computer and marked and blocked those bad sectors myself but anyway.
I empty my history every night and delete almost every temp files also.If you do as others said above I think you will see a improvement in yours.If not then you might have a corrupt file or picked up a virus.

I built my current Dell desktop back in 2010 when I was in grad school. Came with Windows 7, but I maxed out the processor, RAM, and even installed a blue ray burner. Only thing I've done since then is update to Windows 10 and replace the hard drive a couple of times. Currently has a 2TB SSD, and runs like a top.

May want to look into a new hard drive, maybe install more RAM, always back up files regularly (in more places than one), give it a frequent clean-out as mentioned above, and restart at least daily.