Versions of Windows Movie Maker… on Win7

Opinions have differed over the years on the Windows Movie Maker line, but it’s a capable enough product. You’re not going to be creating cutting-edge media with WMM, but for the cost (free), well… you get what you pay for.

There was some excitement when it was announced that Windows 7 would have access to an entirely new, refreshed version of Windows Movie Maker. I say “have access to”, because the new version – Windows Live Movie Maker – would, instead, be a separate download – along with Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Writer, and a few other things. Certainly leaving some of those *core* products out of Windows 7 wasn’t everyone’s favorite decision, but it keeps the OS slimmer & trimmer. That’s a good thing.

Sadly, the new Windows Live Movie Maker is probably not the follow-up that most folks were hoping for. While it does utilize the updated ribbon bar interface, which is nice, most of the improvements end there. The ever-usable “timeline” view is gone, taking a “picture from a preview” is no longer offered, and the ability to manually “stretch” objects out to adjust the timing has been replaced with manually typing in values. It’s too bad, too, because the updated Windows Movie Maker could’ve really hit it outta the park, but the more I use it, the more I find things that I cannot do that I used to be able to.

Thankfully, there is some good news.

For starters, WMM 2.6 is available for download, and seems to work just fine on Vista or Windows 7 – both 32-bit and 64-bit. Even better, the WMM version that was updated for Windows Vista (ver 6.0) works on Win7 as well, provided you download the proper version for your OS, and then run a simple batch file. Version 6.0 (released with Vista) included new effects and transitions, support for hardware acceleration, and some newer file formats. Also, the UI is a refreshed & improved version of the WMM 2.6 interface.

Why offer both versions? Well… the 6.0 version offered some hardware acceleration features that not every Vista machine supported. For those users, the refreshed XP version of WMM was released as version 2.6. Confused? Don’t worry about it. For most folks, the shipped Vista version (6.0) is the best of the bunch, so…

Let’s take a look at installing that.

First…

Second…

Extract the “Movie Maker” folder and copy it to your C:\Program Files directory. (Note: for 64-bit users, the “C:\Program Files (x86)” folder will not be used in this case, since the 64-bit version of WMM is a true 64-bit application.)
Open the “Movie Maker” folder that you just extracted.
Right-click on the “reregdlls.bat” file and choose to “Run as administrator”. Choose ‘yes’ when prompted and allow the batch file to run. It should only take a moment.
Finally, left-click on the “moviemk.exe” file and drag it onto your Start button to “pin it to the Start Menu”.
Open the Start Menu, click on “Windows Movie Maker”, and go!

Notes:

Although both versions of Windows Movie Maker (2.6 and 6.0) can function along side Windows Live Movie Maker just fine, it appears that the 2.6 and 6.0 versions stomp on each other somewhat. I recommend that you choose just one of those versions to have running on your Win7 system – with 6.0 being the better of the two.
The 2.6 (XP) version works fine on Windows 7, but seems to have a few issues – either by design, or by running on an OS that it was not intended for. For instance, the “collections” view won’t show your imported video files – those have to be selected directly. Also, importing video files takes quite a while, and then breaks them into “chunks” rather than the whole video file.
The 6.0 (Vista) version is obviously not intended to be ripped from Vista, so your experience under Win7 may vary and/or be problematic. Haven’t heard of any issues, though.

Windows Movie Maker 2.6 (Vista/Win7 refresh of the WMM XP version)

Windows Movie Maker 6.0 (Vista-released version, 32-bit or 64-bit)

Windows Live Movie Maker (Downloadable for Windows 7)

Finally, a special thanks to this forum for pointing me in the right direction!

Hope you enjoy using Windows Movie Maker on Windows 7!

14 Responses to “Versions of Windows Movie Maker… on Win7”

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1 Young May 5, 2010 at 3:10 am

Thanks for this article.
I using your WMM6.0(x64)
Would you let me know how to uninstall your WMM6.0(x64)?
- 2 yipcanjo May 5, 2010 at 12:13 pm
  
  You’re wondering how to “uninstall” the WMM6.0 (x64) version from your Win7 machine? If so, just delete the folder. Pretty easy. That won’t unregister the DLLs, but it’s hardly a big deal. Also, there isn’t a whole lotta reason to uninstall if you don’t want to. The program is quite small and still allows for other versions to run side-by-side.
  
  Hope that helps.
3 G. Anderson July 10, 2011 at 10:21 am

THANK YOU!!!!! Have spent half the day trying to make another DL work!!!
4 jerry White September 4, 2011 at 1:43 pm

Thanks for the info and links. Hope it works! I love win 7 but was not happy to see it did not include wmm. But then was thinking all was ok when I found that I could download wmm-live for free. Not! wmm-live sucks! I want my old wmm back. I hope this will do the trick. Thanks!
5 jerry White September 4, 2011 at 2:00 pm

Half way home! I got the wmm 6.0 downloaded and running on my Win7 system. But ! I cant get it to recegnize HD video files as video files? I am going to check for an update. I will post back.
6 Miss.Andrea Borman. September 14, 2011 at 8:00 pm

I have got Windows 7. And yes,you can run both Movie Maker 2.6 and Movie Maker 6 side by side on the same computer.Although not at the same time when the other is open in use. But I did not like Movie Maker 6 as it is not as nice as 2.6 the XP version. And also 2.6 has more features and is the most user friendly of the two.

So now I just have Movie Maker 2.6 on my Windows 7. I would recommend Movie Maker 2.6 to anyone who is using Windows 7 and windows Vista. As it is the closest thing the the original 2.1 version on Windows XP and is exactly like it. Andrea Borman.
7 manuel November 3, 2011 at 1:47 pm

Thank you so much i ran into the live problem it is awful program i feel i ha no control like in the 6 version . then i tried sony vegas but it has a big lerning curve I tried you way i install it and it working beautifully.
8 supersadbh November 25, 2011 at 2:48 am

I tried your download but it keeps coming up in my c. drive as mm2.6 and not 6.0 version
9 Duke Padillo January 28, 2012 at 11:27 am

Does WMM 2.6 and WMM 6.0 both support .MOV? I am using a Nikon Coolpix S8100 and the videos captured are .MOV.
- 10 yipcanjo January 28, 2012 at 2:14 pm
  
  .MOV files are not supported.
  - 11 Duke Padillo January 28, 2012 at 11:45 pm
    
    Really? How disappointing! I am terribly clueless now what software I should use that I need not to pay to acquire it. Having problems with Windows Live Moviemaker Version 2011 on Win 7 because each time I open the project I have saved, some of the clips has a yellow triangle with a exclamation point inside stating that the file is missing and corrupted even if I have saved the project before closing it. I couldn’t publish my project now even if I am finished with it.
12 Gusti Putu Sugiarta February 6, 2012 at 11:00 am

THANK YOU FOR SHARE THIS!!
IT’S WORKS!! :))
13 keri February 16, 2012 at 10:08 am

i installed wmm 2.6 and it works fine with Win 7, UNTIL
i tried to SAVE a movie! Then after 4% I got the usual

“Windows Movie Maker cannot save the movie to the specified location. Verify that the original source files used in your movie are still available, that the saving location is still available…” ETC message

I managed to save the same project with WLMM, but
i much prefer the features of WMM 2.6. This saving
problem seems to be quite common and seems
unresolved:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/problem-with-windows-movie-maker-26-re-save-movie/a27c993d-c44b-452b-966e-700a390d66b0

keri
14 Elean February 28, 2012 at 8:10 pm

Thanks soooo much. The one for win 7 sucks.