When teachers demanded a slideshow presentation or video project, most students from 2009 to 2017 relied on Windows Movie Maker to see their assignment to completion. Movie Maker was a free video and photo editing software packaged with Windows Essentials — making it easily accessible on both school and home computers.
With a preview pane on the left and a storyboard of the videos and photos on the right, Movie Maker made it easy to view your entire project without much scrolling. Audio and music clips could be inserted into the project too, with a bar containing audio waves that made trimming easy.
Movie Maker allowed for both slide transitions (fading to the next slide, photos shuffling to the next slide, etc.) and slide effects (image moving across the screen, zooming in, zooming out, etc.) to customize the project. While nothing fancy, Movie Maker’s layout was easily navigable for the average person while having the resources to create a professional project.
Windows 10 ushered in many new programs, and Movie Maker was discontinued and replaced by Video Editor — a far inferior substitute. The ability to use 3D effects does not make up for the awkward layout and absence of slide transitions.
When an assignment requires a creator to make a professional slideshow, the choppy switch between slides makes the presentation fail on a visual front. Creators must scour the web for free software programs to download and use as a substitute to make their projects halfway decent. Pulling up the reviews for many of these programs on the Microsoft Store will reveal an onslaught of inconveniences such as glitches, crashes, and watermarks on the project that renders the project unviewable.
Being discontinued, Microsoft has removed Movie Maker from being available for download — meaning it must be ripped from shady third-party sites. Even if it’s an old program, Microsoft should put Movie Maker back on their site as an option to be downloaded instead of promoting their far inferior Video Editor. If it was free before, what’s the harm of keeping it accessible?
Charlene Pepiot is a junior studying English at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Charlene know by emailing her @cp872117@ohio.edu.
