[2] However, newer CPU clocks were faster, so the gameplay speed increased accordingly, making the games less usable over time.
But, when the system stops working correctly, or the users want to access the configuration controls, they cannot repeat that initial step because of the different context and the unavailable information (password lost, missing instructions, or simply a hard-to-manage user interface that was first configured by trial and error).
With changes in user requirements and other external factors, this code may be executed later, thereby exposing the bugs and making the software appear less functional.
Products that cannot connect to most websites include PowerMacs, old Unix boxes and Microsoft Windows versions older than Server 2008/Windows 7 (at least without the use of a third-party browser).
Software that is being continuously modified may lose its integrity over time if proper mitigating processes are not consistently applied.
Active software rot slows once an application is near the end of its commercial life and further development ceases.
For example, the original SHRDLU program (an early natural language understanding program) cannot be run on any modern-day computer or computer simulator, as it was developed during the days when LISP and PLANNER were still in development stage and thus uses non-standard macros and software libraries which do not exist anymore.
Over time, the web host is likely to update their versions of the programming language (such as PHP) and the database (such as MariaDB) without consulting the webmaster.
[9] This includes removing dead code and rewriting sections that have been modified extensively and no longer work efficiently.
[11] Manny Lehman used the term entropy in 1974 to describe the complexity of a software system, and to draw an analogy to the second law of thermodynamics.
[12] Ivar Jacobson et al. in 1992 described software entropy similarly, and argued that this increase in disorder as a system is modified would always eventually make a software system uneconomical to maintain, although the time until that happens is greatly dependent on its initial design, and can be extended by refactoring.