Windows Movie Maker Tutorial: Editing Videos Like a Pro

How to Edit Videos in Windows Live Movie Maker

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Microsoft has released Windows Live Movie Maker on August 19, 2009 as part of a refresh to their Windows Live Essentials download. Windows Live Movie Maker is the first application designed for Windows 7 and is built to make beautiful movies from your photos and videos. And the latest version is Windows Live Movie Maker 2011.

Update in 2017: Microsoft has stopped the Windows Essentials Suite support on January 10, 2017. It is claimed that it is no longer available for download. If you are looking for an alternative to windows essentials movie maker, or windows movie maker, try Filmora video editor, which is available on both Windows7, Windows8 and Windows 10.

Part 1: Best Alternative to Windows Movie Maker: Filmora [Windows7/8/10 & Mac]

Windows Live Movie Maker is a little bit limiting for video editing. In most cases, you need to run Windows 7. Fortunately, you do have other options. There is plenty of software which will do the same thing but better than Windows Live Movie Maker for you to edit your videos and burn videos to DVD. Among many of them, we recommend one Wondershare Filmora. You may wonder what’s so special with this Video Editor. First of all, it supports almost all kinds of video formats, such as AVI, MP4, MPG, MPEG, 3GP, WMV, ASF, RM, RMVB, DAT, MOV, MKV and HD video formats: MTS, M2TS(AVCHD), TS(MPEG-2), HD MKV(, MPEG-2 HD), HD WMV(VC-1), and HD MOV(, MPEG-4). Secondly, it provides powerful video editing function, such as crop, trim, adjust video effect, add watermark, etc. Also, there are various title and text templates, filter/transition and effects presets for you to choose from. Thirdly, Windows Live Movie Maker can only generate WMV files directly, but this video editor supports burn video to DVD disc, DVD Folder and ISO file or save the video to most of the popular formats.

Part 2: How to Edit Videos in Windows Live Movie Maker [Step by Step]

1.Add Videos and Photos

While you are adding videos to Windows Live Movie Maker, you may encounter a problem like 3GP files can’t be added to Windows Live Movie Maker. Or it can’t be played in Window Live Movie Maker. And many other video files as well, such as RM, RMVB, DAT and HD video formats: MTS, TS, HD MKV, HD WMV, and HD MOV, etc. It’s quite necessary to get familiar with what all those files that could be imported to Windows Live Movie Maker.

Notes

• Video and music files that are protected with digital rights management (DRM) can’t be used in Windows Live Movie Maker.
• Support for using MPEG-2 and Microsoft Recorded TV Show video files in your movie is available only if your computer is running one of the following editions of Windows Vista or Windows 7: Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate.
• AVCHD video files that contain Dolby Digital audio can be used in Windows Live Movie Maker if your computer is running one of the following editions of Windows 7: Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate.
• MPEG-4 video files that contain audio can be used if you’re using Movie Maker on a computer running Windows 7.
• Some MPEG-4 video files can be used when you’re using Movie Maker on a computer running Windows Vista if the necessary audio and video codecs are installed.

After adding your photos or videos, you can also add audio or background music to your video clips by clicking the Add music option.

Learn details about How to Add and Edit Music in Windows Movie Maker

2. Video Editing

As we said before, Windows Live Movie Maker (later named Windows Movie Maker) is a simple and easy video editing software for Windows, it can complete some basic video editing and become a good choice for novices. Here, I will share with you about the basic video editing tutorial in the Movie Maker.

Cut & Trim & Split video in Windows Movie Maker

After adding videos and photos to the storyboard, you can now keep the useful sections and remove unwanted parts. To trim video, just place the playhead to the target position and right click the clip to select the Trim Set Start Point and move the playhead again to then end point and right click to select Set End Point. You can also go to the Edit tab and click the Split menu to split the video into parts. You can then delete and cut out unwanted sections or move it to the proper position.

Add Audio to Video: Record and add voiceover or Music

Windows Movie Maker also allows you to add narrations and background music to video footage. Just click the Add Music option and you can add music from online music libraries such as AudioMicro, Free Music Archive, and Vimeo or add music from the computer.

Add auto movie themes to Video

There is a built-in AutoMovie themes library in Movie Maker. You can use some popular themes such as Contemporary, Cinematic, Fade, Pan and Zoom, Black and White and Sepia.

Add texts &titles to Video

You can add titles, captions, and credits to video with windows movie maker, but it seems hard to add subtitles and customize its position. For more details about the text and title editing, check

Learn more details about How to Add Text to Video with Windows Movie Maker

Apply transitions & animations to video

The Movie Maker features lots of transitions under Animations tab. You can choose from wipes, cinematics, shatters, sweeps and curls, patterns and shapes, reveals, diagonals and dissolves.

Note: if you use the default themes, you won’t see all these transitions. Check the detailed steps about How to Add Transitions in Windows Movie Maker

Apply visual effects to video

We’ve introduced some of the best visual effects software before, but in Windows Movie Maker, you can also add effects such as 3D Ripple, Black and White, Blur, pixelate, mirrors, motions and fade effects.

Change video speed of video

The Movie Maker Edit tab allows you to adjust video volume, add fade in and fade out effects to video, or change video speed.

Learn more details about How to Speed Up Video in Windows Movie Maker

3. Save Video

After finish editing, you can upload your video clips to Facebook, YouTube, and other social media, or burn your videos to DVD with Windows DVD maker. You can also save your video clips on your computer.

You may also like: Windows Movie Maker VS Windows Live Movie Maker: What’s the Difference

While, if you find the windows movie maker editing features are limited based on your editing skills, you can try Wondershare Filmora. Below is a video tutorial about how to edit videos with Filmora.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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