How to Download & Use Windows Movie Maker in Windows 10

Windows Movie Maker is a simple video editing software available in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7/8. It enables you to edit photos or video clips and apply effects to make a photos slider or a basic video. However, the movie maker can't be found in Windows 10. How to download Windows Movie Maker for Windows 10? Follow the instruction in this post.

Where is Windows Movie Maker in Windows 10?

First introduced in Windows ME, Windows Movie Maker is a default video editing program in Windows XP and is a part of Windows Live Essentials in Windows Vista and 7/8. Therefore, prior to Windows 10, you can open the Windows Start menu and easily find Windows Movie Maker in the application list.

However, Windows Movie Maker is not included in Windows 10, and that's why you can't find the video editing tool after upgrading to Windows 10. Windows Movie Maker needs to be downloaded separately to Windows 10 computer.

Download Windows Movie Maker for Windows 10

Although the program doesn't come with Windows 10, people used to be able to get Windows Movie Maker in Win 10 by downloading the Windows Essentials 2012 suite as the program is part of the suite. However, this method no longer worked since Microsoft stopped offering the download for Windows Essentials 2012 on January 10, 2017, which means that we can't download Windows Movie Maker from Microsoft anymore.

Currently, you may still find the download links of Windows Movie Maker for Window 10 on some third-party websites claiming that there are the latest versions of Windows Movie Maker free to download. You should be very cautious about these downloads because they are not real and could contain malware or virus.

What if you really need Windows Movie Maker on your Windows 10 for video editing? Don't worry, there are many video editing alternatives to Windows Movie Maker that you can use. The followings are two Windows Movie Maker alternatives, both of which are beginner-friendly video editors that let you create awesome videos in simple steps.

Icecream Video Editor: Better Windows Movie Maker Alternative for Windows 10

Similar to Windows Movie Maker, Icecream Video Editor is designed to help ordinary users to create videos or photo sliders with video clips, photos, and music files. The editor has a similar interface as Windows Movie Maker, which enables you to edit videos in a timeline and preview the edited video in a playback window during the editing.

Main features

1. Trim video clips (opens new window) to delete unwanted part;

2. Combine video clips or add music or photo to video;

3. Edit video and audio separately;

4. Add titles and captions in various styles, size, and position;

5. Provide more than 20 colorful video transitions, filters to level up your work;

6. Rotate (opens new window), flip videos;

7. Change video resolution (opens new window), format, speed, and other elements;

8. Export videos to MP4, WebM, and MP3.

Pros

• Easy-to-use;

• Better filters and colorful transitions;

• Contain video editing features that Windows Movie Maker lacks, like customizable color filters.

Cons

• Third-party application.

Microsoft Photos: Replacement of Windows Movie Maker in Windows 10

Since Windows Movie Maker is discontinued, Microsoft encouraged users to use the built-in Photos app as a Windows Movie Maker alternative in Windows 10. Since the Fall Creators Update, the Photos app is added with movie editing features. Like Windows Movie Maker, it offers a basic video editing feature, such as trimming, filters, 3D effects and comes in handy if you would like to make a photo slide of your holiday photos. However, the Photos app is rudimentary in features as a video editing tool to replace Windows Moviemaker.

Main Features

1. Cut video clip;

2. Apply 3D effects to videos;

3. Add text to video;

4. Add music or annotation to videos;

5. Built-in filters to improve videos.

Pros

• Built-in application in Windows 10;

• No need to download extra application;

• Totally free.

Cons

• Not really a video editor, lacking basic video editing feature such as editing video & audio clips in timeline tracks, trim out unwanted parts from the middle of a video, rotate or crop video, etc.

Windows Movie Maker is no longer available to download for Windows 10. If you only need to make some simple editing with photos and video clips, you can directly use the Photos app in Windows 10, but you need a real video editor on your Windows 10, download Icecream Video Editor, which is as easy-to-use as Movie Maker.