Windows Movie Maker 2.6

This page offers two installers: Windows Movie Maker 2.0 (mm20enu.exe) for Windows XP, and Windows Movie Maker 2.6 (MM26_ENU.msi) for Windows Vista users whose hardware could not run the Vista-era version that shipped with the OS.

This is legacy software. Microsoft never produced a Windows 10 or Windows 11 version of Movie Maker.

The product line was discontinued, replaced first with Windows Live Movie Maker and now with Microsoft Clipchamp, which ships pre-installed on Windows 11 as the official successor.

If you arrived here on a current Windows 10 or 11 machine looking for a free video editor, the installers above are not for you - skip down to the What to Download Instead section.

If you are on XP or Vista, or you are deliberately rebuilding a legacy editing setup, read on.

What These Installers Actually Are

Windows Movie Maker 2.0 (mm20enu.exe) - the original 2003 release for Windows XP. Designed for SP1/SP2-era XP hardware, around 12 MB. Shipped as part of the XP experience and still installs on a clean XP system.

Windows Movie Maker 2.6 (MM26_ENU.msi) - the April 2007 build released specifically for Vista users whose machines did not meet the requirements of the Vista version of Movie Maker that came with the operating system. Roughly 7 MB, MSI installer. This is the final Windows Movie Maker release that bears the original product name.

Both are unmodified Microsoft installers. Neither has been updated since the 2000s.

What Windows Movie Maker Still Does Well on Legacy Systems

For the small but real audience still running XP or Vista, Movie Maker is one of the few editors that will install and run without dependency hell.

The interface is the original three-pane layout - import on the left, preview in the center, storyboard or timeline at the bottom - that anyone can learn in five minutes.

Inside that simple shell you get the home video essentials: trim and split clips, drop in transitions and visual effects, add titles and credits, layer a music track, and export.

Movie Maker accepts the standard-definition formats of its era - WMV, AVI (especially DV-AVI from camcorders), MPEG-1, WMA audio - and outputs primarily WMV. Output is moderate-resource and will run comfortably on hardware that would not even open a modern editor.

What It Cannot Do

This is the part that matters most. Movie Maker was finalized in 2007, before the modern video format landscape existed. It does not handle:

• HD H.264 footage from any modern phone, GoPro, action camera, or DSLR
• HEVC/H.265 - any 4K or modern compressed video
• FLV files - confirmed by users in the existing reviews on this page
• MKV containers - common for downloaded content
• Modern AAC audio in many wrappers

Even if you install the K-Lite Codec Pack or LAV Filters on a Vista or XP machine, those decoders help VLC Media Player and other players play the files - they do not retrofit Movie Maker's old DirectShow editing pipeline.

If your source material is from a phone or modern camera, Movie Maker will not edit it cleanly.

The reviews on this page reflect this directly: users repeatedly report problems with FLV imports, HD H.264 footage being downsampled, and exported clips failing to play in modern players.

Who Should Download These Installers

There are three legitimate reasons to grab the files above:

You are running Windows XP or Windows Vista. Most modern free editors require Windows 10 or 11. These installers were built for your operating system and one of very few editors that will install cleanly on it.

You only edit standard-definition AVI, WMV, or MPEG-1 footage - DV-AVI tapes from a camcorder, old WMV recordings, MPEG-1 from an early capture device. Movie Maker handles those formats natively.

You are rebuilding an archival or nostalgia setup - a vintage XP/Vista workstation, a school computer lab restoration, a tutorial recreating early-2000s home video workflows.

For everyone else, especially anyone on Windows 10 or 11, the installers on this page will either refuse to install or install in compatibility mode and fail in unpredictable ways. A current free editor is the right answer.

What to Download Instead {#what-to-download-instead}

If you are on Windows 10 or Windows 11, every option below is freeware with no watermarks, actively maintained, and supports modern video formats out of the box.

The closest thing to "the new Windows Movie Maker" is Microsoft Clipchamp.

It is the official Microsoft successor, ships pre-installed on Windows 11, uses a similar drag-and-drop philosophy, and supports modern MP4, MOV, and HEVC footage natively.

For a real free editor with no compromises, DaVinci Resolve is the most capable free video editor ever released - the same software used to color-grade Hollywood features, given away free with no watermarks and no time limits.

For simple but modern, three good choices: Shotcut is open-source, FFmpeg-based, and handles virtually any format.

OpenShot Video Editor is the gentlest learning curve - drag, drop, export. Kdenlive sits between the two with multi-track editing without overwhelming new users.

For maximum effects without a watermark, VSDC Free Video Editor is non-linear, includes hundreds of effects and transitions, and stays free permanently.

If you only need to trim and cut, LosslessCut trims video without re-encoding and finishes in seconds. AviDemux does the same for older AVI workflows.

If you came here for social media editing, CapCut Video Editor is currently the most-downloaded video editor on this site, built for vertical content with AI features tuned for TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

For a side-by-side breakdown of these options, the Best Free Video Editors Without Watermark guide covers them in detail.

Companion Tools for Legacy Movie Maker Workflows

If you are sticking with the XP or Vista installer for a specific archival project, a few tools pair well with it:

• VirtualDub2 handles frame-accurate AVI editing that complements Movie Maker
• AviSynth+ provides scriptable filtering and processing for advanced AVI workflows
• HandBrake converts modern MP4 or MKV files into the AVI or WMV formats Movie Maker can actually import (run it on a modern machine, then move the files over)
• VLC Media Player plays the WMV files Movie Maker exports on any modern device

You can browse the full library of current options on the Video Editors category page.

Download Information

• Windows Movie Maker 2.0 - mm20enu.exe - for Windows XP
• Windows Movie Maker 2.6 - MM26_ENU.msi - 7 MB - released 7 April 2007 - for Windows Vista
• License: Freeware
• Developer: Microsoft
• Status: Discontinued / archived

Both files are unmodified original Microsoft installers, hosted here as part of the site's archive of legacy Microsoft tools that users still occasionally need.

Use them for the situations described above; for active video editing in 2026, choose one of the modern alternatives linked throughout this page.