Yes, "registry rot" is real. If you are looking for a decent cleanup tool I usually recommend CCleaner because its pretty foolproof and the registry cleaner does a pretty solid job without trashing things.

<p>I still think a reinstall is needed. In my windows day I had a basic image with my user account and basic programs. I would back up my documents folder. Wipe the drive and put this new image on like twice a year. My shit was always fast :)</p>

Shit, that Dell uses a 1.8" SSD rather than a standard 2.5"? Well, I still recommend replacing it, it'll just be

It's been a while since I used it, but this wasn't too bad considering the price (nada); OpenShot Video Editor | Simple, powerful, and free video editor for Linux!
And therein lies most of your problem...

I don't think Vista supports TRIM, which could be a chunk of your problem since you have the SSD.

If it were me, I don't think I'd put any more money into this particular machine. Just too old. If you have backups, a nuke and pave would probably be my Hail Mary before buying a new laptop.

Another thought: have you checked your power settings? If those somehow got changed that can slow things down a lot.

It may also be an SSD that does not natively support TRIM or trash collection. A lot of the early 1.8" ones did not have support for this in the firmware. The 1.8" that came came in my old Lenovo certainly did not.