[dayglored]

> Windows OS degrades over time.

Well, in fairness, they ALL do with regard to security, in two senses:

1. Bugs and flaws go undiscovered for months or years, and later appear. and
2. Environments change, threats that weren't conceivable a year or 5 years ago appear.

I patch my Mac and Linux systems just as often as I do Windows Updates on my Windows systems.

Now, as a separate, non-security related concern, any given installation of Windows is good for somewhere between as much as a few years (for a lightly-used system) and as little as a few months (for a heavily-used system). Windows gets "stale" faster than any of the other major OSes. I find for my production systems, that I have to re-install Windows to "freshen it up" about every 15 months, otherwise it starts acting strangely and eventually goes unstable. My Linux and Mac installations are typically good for the life of the computer (or VM), which in my case is 6-8 years.

[Excellence]

In Windows 10, by reinstall, you mean from the system without destroying data? I had to do that right after I got my Surface when the camera wouldn’t work. It was simple. But is it thorough enough?

[Dalberg-Acton]

Windows (for the desktop) is different in that it bloats and slows with use. The registry gets tangled up and bloated as software is installed and uninstalled. After a few years, the OS needs to be reinstalled if you want it to perform like new.
We know this to be true.