A colleague at work says that as a Windows machine, it needs to be reloaded every few years - ugh!
That was [more or less] true many years ago but not with modern versions of Windows (W7 and newer). In fact, reloading Windows is a last ditch effort when everything else has failed because it sets you months if not years behind in security and driver updates, it often does not fix the problem, and if it does fix the problem, you don't learn why or how so you can prevent recurrence of the problem.
Sadly, you did not tell us what version of Windows you have installed. And is it 32-bit or 64-bit?
Have you scanned for malware?
Have you cleaned out the clutter with CCleaner or Windows Disk Cleanup?
What do you have starting with Windows? You typically don't need any auto-updaters.
How much free disk space do you have on your boot drive? If less than 30GB, see if there are any programs you installed you don't use and uninstall them.