Don't want to fork over $30 for a one-year subscription to Windows 10 Extended Security Updates? Microsoft is offering a couple of ways to avoid the fee. But there's a catch.

Microsoft ends support for Windows 10 on Oct. 14, and it initially wanted to charge you $30 to keep the OS for another year.

With just a few months remaining until the Windows 10 end-of-support date, Microsoft seems to have belatedly realized that owners of tens of millions of consumer PCs running Windows 10 aren't ready to ...