What happens when you repeatedly press the Refresh button on the Windows desktop?

Many people, especially those who grew up with Windows XP, have likely experienced repeatedly right-clicking the desktop and pressing Refresh, believing it would make their computer run smoother. However, no one has ever definitively said whether it actually works or if it's just a misconception. The question is: what does pressing Refresh on the Windows desktop actually do to our computers, and does repeatedly pressing it have any effect?

 

In reality, the Refresh button doesn't speed up the computer at all. Its function is to instruct Windows to refresh the desktop display, or simply put, to re-display the screen to update the on-screen elements to match the actual file structure in the system. For example, if icons are missing, icons are displaying incorrectly, or files that have just been copied or moved haven't immediately appeared on the desktop.

And does repeatedly pressing Refresh make the computer faster? The answer is no. Pressing this button doesn't increase the frame rate, doesn't clear RAM, and doesn't improve CPU performance in any way. The belief that pressing it makes games run smoother is likely just a misconception we created in childhood and inadvertently passed down without any supporting evidence.

What's more interesting is... If the desktop is already displaying correctly, repeatedly refreshing the page only slightly burdens the system because Windows unnecessarily uses CPU resources to display a new screen. While this burden is minimal, it doesn't provide any additional benefit.

However, even knowing this, many people likely won't be able to stop this habit, as it's become ingrained since childhood.