Needless to say, how much Windows Movie Maker has remained in the memory of us all. The application was included for the first time with Windows Me in the year 2000 (at the time of Windows XP) and for a long time it was Microsoft’s answer to iMovie, a simple video editing program suitable for the less experienced and included by Apple in his macOS.
Windows Movie Maker has had many different versions and support for the latest version included in the Windows Essentials package has ceased in 2017.
Redmond’s home at the same time promised to release a version of UWP (Universal Windows Platform) that would not has arrived yet.
Movie Maker, for those not familiar, is a very simple and basicvideo editing program. Just this simplicity with a very intuitive interface was one of the reasons for its success.
Many have taken advantage of the convenient free program included in the system to edit videos of their holidays, or to create slideshows (videos composed of photos and sometimes music).
Attention: there is noWindows Movie Maker 2019or Movie Maker Windows 10 and even for this 2018, 2017, 2016 and similar. These are clearly fake solutions, created to attract unsuspecting users and maybe install malicious software on their PCs.
In this article we will see how to download a working version of Movie Maker even onWindows 10and what are the best alternatives for not regretting the simple program.
Download and install Windows Movie Maker on Windows
With the end of development and support for Windows Movie Maker obviouslythe application is no longer downloadablefrom the servers and from the Microsoft site. You can opt for the installation of an old version, the 3.0 (latest version) included with Windows Vista and which is still there.
Unfortunately the programhas major limitationsdue mainly to its age, support for high definition video streams is incomplete, along with support for MPEG4 and other popular video formats. For these reasons it is strongly advised to opt for the alternatives described in the following paragraph.
If you can’t do without Windows Movie Maker here’s how to install it on a version of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. Just download the appropriate executable for your system. Below are links toFree Movie Maker:
Then double click on the downloaded .msi file and follow the procedure; it is simple and linear. Once the installation is complete, you can start the program by clicking on the Start button and clicking on its usual icon. Unfortunately, this version is in English and is not available in Italian.
Best alternatives to Movie Maker
To replace the deceased Movie Maker properly, you need an equally simplefree video editing program.
Here are some of thebest Windows Movie Maker alternatives we’ve found for you:
Avidemux
It is a convenient multi-platform program (available for Windows, Mac and Linux) that looks like a clone of the most successful versions of Movie Maker and that allows you to edit simple movies quickly and easily.
Compared to the old Windows Movie Maker this video editing software is significantly more complete and allows you to do a lot more (in addition to the classic functions: create videos, edit videos, add effects).
Through the application, you can also export videos in MPEG, AVI or MP4. Editing is a game for the kids thanks to the presence of a convenient timeline and all the controls and options exactly where we would expect them.
The project is free and open source therefore completely free and without any limitation, to download it just go tothis pagewhere downloads are available for all operating systems.
Microsoft Photos
If you made photo slideshows with Movie Maker, and if you have Windows 10, you have no reason to install any other application. Just the Photos app included in the system.
Microsoft has in fact included the video editor function from your shots. In reality, there are two possibilities you can choose for the creation of an automatic video in which the application will prepare the video for you or access the manual creation that closely follows the old program (it seems a kind of recreated Movie Maker with Modern interface).
With manual creation you can choose music and transitions.
Accessing the section is very simple: open the Photos app (finding it is easy just do a search in the Start menu), at the top left click on the “New video” button and then on “New video project”.
Finally, you will be asked which name you want to assign to the video choose one and press OK, at which point you will find yourself in the interface of the function that is similar to that of the screen above.
Kdenlive
Despite having the appearance of a professional video editing application, Kdenlive is great for those who want to make the transition from a simpler program to something more complete. The program offers many advanced options along with a user-friendly interface.
It has a beautiful timeline, which allows multi-track editing, viewing and adjusting audio track levels and special effects. Kdenlive is an open-source project born for Linux but also available on Windows. If you want to try it, just take the executable from the project’sofficial websiteand proceed with the installation.
If you are looking for other free software to make video clips or edit videos, please see our in-depth section dedicated to the subject.