Windows Live Movie Maker can e-mail a finished video, burn it to DVD, or upload it to YouTube or Facebook (with a plug-in). The publishing and sharing options are better thought out. The intermediate photo-, audio-, and video-editing features are sparse-you can split and trim videos, fade songs in and out, and pick a start and end point for audio and video. After all, you can always tweak later with the help of the menu tabs. Automating movies is handy, especially for time-restricted users. It'll also prompt you to add a song from the hard drive. You could finish a minute later with a click of the AutoMovie button, which populates the movie with a title, transitions, and pan and zoom effects.

You'll get started dragging and dropping video clips and photos into the storyboard.

Like Microsoft Office 2007 apps, Windows Live Movie Maker tucks its actions and menus into a visual ribbon. The app comes bundled into the bulky Windows Live Essentials suite of apps to separate it out, you'll need to uncheck the other boxes before installing. However, its toolset and interface lack a certain sophistication that users of all levels would appreciate. Functional freeware that's aimed squarely at the casual consumer crowd, Microsoft's Windows Live Movie Maker easily turns photos and video clips into slideshows and movies on Vista and Windows 7.

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