Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker is a discontinued video editing app developed by Microsoft. It was introduced in Windows Me build 2416 as Windows Media Pad, before it was renamed to Windows Movie Maker in build 2429. The first fully-developed version of Windows Movie Maker was released on 14 September 2000 as part of Windows Me. With Windows XP, version 1.1 was released that brought support for DV AVI videos and WIA-based (Windows Image Acquisition) media importion. Movie Maker 2.0 was released as a free update over Movie Maker 1.1. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 brought support for DVD burning.

In Windows Longhorn, an Avalon-based version of Windows Movie Maker was included, however it was later removed due to the development reset. In Windows Vista, the WPF version of Windows Movie Maker was retained and the app gained Xbox 360 playback support, DVR-MS file format support and Direct3D-based transitions. The WIA-based media acquisition was also removed from the app. It's also the first and the last version of Windows Movie Maker that had the same version numbering as most of the other Windows components and apps. However, Microsoft also provided Windows Movie Maker 2.6 for Windows Vista.

Removal from Windows, reintroduction and discontinuation
Windows Movie Maker would later be removed from Windows and reintroduced in Windows Live Essentials suite as Windows Live Movie Maker. The app underwent 3 major updates since then: 2009, 2011 and 2012. The user interface was also redesigned to use a ribbon toolbar like Office 2007 and Windows 7's Paint.

Windows Movie Maker 2012 is the last version of Windows Live Movie Maker. This version includes Vimeo uploading support and MP4 replaced WMV as the default video export format.

The app has been discontinued in 2017 and Windows 10's Video Editor (formerly Story Remix, works under the Photos app) has taken its place. Some features of the app (such as AutoMovie) made their way into the new Video Editor app. Even though the app has been discontinued, it still runs on the latest versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11.