Windows Movie Maker

The free video editor a generation learned on, dropped by Microsoft in 2017

Replaced
19902026

Windows Movie Maker was Microsoft's free video editor, introduced with Windows Me on 14 September 2000 and included in XP and Vista: a timeline, transitions, titles and a one-click export that made it the first editing software most home users ever touched. Spun out into Windows Live Essentials in 2009 and last updated in 2012, it lost official support and its download on 10 January 2017, replaced by the Windows 10 Photos editor and later Clipchamp.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2000
  2. 14 September 2000 Launch
    Movie Maker ships with Windows Me

    Microsoft's answer to iMovie, free in the box.

  3. 2002
  4. November 2002 Version
    Movie Maker 2 for Windows XP

    Transitions, effects and the version most people remember.

  5. 2005
  6. 2005 Peak
    The YouTube era

    A large share of early online video is cut in Movie Maker.

  7. 2007
  8. 30 January 2007 Version
    Movie Maker 6 in Vista

    HD and DVD burning; the last version built into Windows.

  9. 2009
  10. 19 August 2009 Rebrand
    Windows Live Movie Maker

    Moved out of Windows into the downloadable Live Essentials suite.

  11. 2012
  12. 7 August 2012 Version
    Windows Essentials 2012

    The final version; last updated in April 2014.

  13. 2017
  14. 10 January 2017 Shutdown
    End of support

    The download is removed; users are sent to the Photos app.

  15. 2021
  16. 8 September 2021 other
    Microsoft buys Clipchamp

    The eventual replacement, built into Windows 11 in 2022.

The site through time

Browse microsoft.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2017 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Microsoft 2000–2017 Founded Part of Windows Me, XP and Vista, then of Windows Live Essentials

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: Movie Maker was moved out of Windows into the downloadable Windows Live Essentials suite in 2009, and when Microsoft ended support for Windows Essentials 2012 on 10 January 2017 it removed the download and told users to use the video editor inside the Windows 10 Photos app. Clipchamp, bought in 2021, became the built-in editor in Windows 11.

Our analysis: Movie Maker was never a serious editor, and that was the point: it came with Windows, it was free, and it was how millions of people made their first video, from school projects to early YouTube. Microsoft let it drift once video moved to phones and the web, and replaced it twice, first with a thin editor inside Photos and then with an acquired web app, neither of which anyone quite calls Movie Maker.

History [edit]

In the box

Windows Movie Maker arrived as part of Windows Me on 14 September 2000, Microsoft's answer to Apple's iMovie: capture from a camcorder, cut clips on a storyboard or timeline, add a title, export a small file for email. Windows XP's version 2 in 2002 added transitions and effects and made it genuinely usable, and Vista's Movie Maker 6 in 2007 brought HD and DVD burning. Because it was free and already installed, it became the default first editor for a generation: school projects, wedding slideshows, family holidays and, from 2005, an enormous share of early YouTube uploads with their Movie Maker title cards and Star Wipe transitions.

Windows Live

Microsoft took Movie Maker out of Windows 7 and reissued it in 2009 as Windows Live Movie Maker, part of the downloadable Windows Live Essentials suite alongside Messenger, Mail and Photo Gallery. It was rebuilt around a ribbon and direct upload to YouTube and Facebook, and it lost the timeline. Windows Essentials 2012, released in August 2012, was the final version and received its last update in April 2014.

End of support

Microsoft ended support for Windows Essentials 2012 on 10 January 2017 and removed the download, warning that copies offered elsewhere might be tampered with; unofficial installers and scam "Windows Movie Maker" downloads circulated for years afterwards. Users were pointed to the video editor built into the Windows 10 Photos app, introduced under the name Story Remix in 2017. In September 2021 Microsoft bought Clipchamp, a browser-based editor from Brisbane, and made it the built-in video editor in Windows 11 in 2022.

The domain today

microsoft.com still hosts the "Windows Essentials" support page explaining that Movie Maker is no longer available for download and where to find Clipchamp.

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Sources [edit]

  1. Windows Movie Maker review PCMag 14 August 2012 [archived]
  2. Windows Essentials Microsoft 10 January 2017 [archived]
  3. Microsoft's Story Remix is a video editor for Windows 10 The Verge 11 May 2017 [archived]
  4. Microsoft acquires video creation and editing software maker Clipchamp TechCrunch 8 September 2021 [archived]

Last verified: 15 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).