Firmware build for PICO fails - make: *** [lib/startup_stm32f401xx.o] Error 127

Later that day:

Attempted to install a cross compiler per:  (although I am unable to truly understand what this might do)

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64131523/arm-none-eabi-gcc-not-found-on-windows-10-stm32ide

gcc-arm-none-eabi-10.3-2021.07-win32.exe
Windows 32-bit Installer (Signed for Windows 10 and later) (Formerly SHA2 signed binary)
MD5: f32c295f416d00c6de463d513675fbbc

Upgraded VSCode to 1.60.2

Version: 1.60.2 (system setup)
Commit: 7f6ab5485bbc008386c4386d08766667e155244e
Date: 2021-09-22T12:00:31.514Z
Electron: 13.1.8
Chrome: 91.0.4472.164
Node.js: 14.16.0
V8: 9.1.269.39-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19042

But alas, still the same error.