“Don’t panic,” Leo said. “Type this exactly: sfc /scannow ”

“Close enough. The real moral: scan early, scan often. And always run DISM before SFC if SFC fails the first time.”

“The moral?” Leo asked.

Priya clicked the Start menu. It popped open instantly—calendar, weather, pinned apps, all of it. The Settings app opened without a hiccup. Her wallpaper reappeared like an old friend saying hello.

She leaned back. Three commands. One afternoon. No data lost.

“Now run sfc /scannow one more time,” Leo said.

The tool was slower. It reached out to Windows Update servers, downloaded a pristine copy of the system’s component store, and replaced any bad pieces. After 20 more minutes, it reported success.