Being part of the Windows Live Essentials suite, Windows Live Movie Maker has to be installed through the Essentials package installer. Also, bear in mind that this version only works in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Windows Live Movie Maker is dead easy to use. All you have to do is import the photos and videos you want to use, select the background music and add some titles and end credits if you want. The program displays extra buttons on the title bar that gives you access to configuration settings for video, music and text respectively. As regards effects, you also have plenty to choose from: transition effects, animations, zoom and pan, and also visual effects that will spice up your images.

When your video is finished, you can save it in different formats and sizes, depending on where you plan to use it on: computer, high-definition TV screen, mobile device, instant messaging client, etc. Windows Live Movie Maker also includes the option to upload it directly to YouTube, Facebook, SkyDrive and Flickr. The only drawback is that Windows Live Movie Maker saves videos to one single format: WMV.

With Windows Live Movie Maker you'll be able to create nice compositions with your favorite photos and videos, and share them with anyone.

Download Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 15.4.3508.1109 in Softonic

This is probably the best video editing tool to take your first steps in the world of video editing. It's simple, easy to use, and though more advanced users will definitely find it too basic, it's just perfect for anyone starting to play around with video compositions.

VideoPad Video Editor features a complete interface very much in the style of professional editors, with important elements such as a double built-in screen – one to preview selected clips, the other one to preview the complete sequence - and a time line for both the video and the audio tracks. The program also includes a few video effects (mainly regarding light, color and text snippets) and also transitions, though sadly only three of them. You can also add still images to your composition, either a blank screen or an image.

When you finish your project, simply click the "Create Movie" button on the interface and you'll be able to export it to a variety of formats. The good thing about VideoPad Video Editor is that it includes a bunch of exporting presets, depending on the platform you're producing the video for: PC, Mac, portable device, mobile phone, etc.

Also, if you get lost at any moment, don't worry: VideoPad Video Editor includes a through Help section where you'll find an answer to all your video editing queries.

VideoPad Video Editor may be quite simple at first sight, but it's a great choice for video editing beginners.

Download VideoPad Video Editor 2.22 in Softonic

Don't be mistaken: this is no replacement for big shots like Adobe Premier or Sony Vegas. However Pinnacle VideoSpin works perfectly well for the average user who wants to create an easy video presentation including video clips, photos, sound effects and background music.

The program features support for the most popular file formats, plus a nicely designed interface that divides the working area into three main sections: the list of material you can add to your presentation, a preview window and a timeline – together with a slightly annoying banner.

The timeline is a handy tool that lets you to organize every element in your video in terms of the position they occupy in the presentation, the amount of time they take and the transition effects between them, among other settings.

Pinnacle VideoSpin also features a special tool to create and edit title screens, along with some ready-made material like sample titles and audio effects. However I still missed more advanced functionality, such as adding fading to sound or replacing the video's original soundtrack – despite reading the Help section from end to end, I didn't manage to make it work.

Once your presentation is ready, Pinnacle VideoSpin allows you to save it into a variety of formats and support, including AVI, DivX, iPod compatible video or MPEG.

Pinnacle VideoSpin is an intuitive presentation tool with which average users can easily create their own photo and video shows.

Download Pinnacle VideoSpin 2.0.0.669 in Softonic

Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding. Its very flexible, supporting AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF files using a variety of codecs. This means there is no messing around converting it to DV format before you can edit it in a third party editing application. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queues and powerful scripting capabilities.

Avidemux is completely open source and works across platforms, so it's ideal for those that are working on both Macs and PCs. However, the look and feel of Avidemux could do with some work. It looks like some kind of Windows 95 throwback app but don't judge the book by its cover. Avidemux is very powerful and although it's not particularly intuitive at first, with trial and error you can quickly learn the editing basics.

Note that although it claims to handle MPEG clips I was confronted with an 'H.264' error which meant it has to operate in 'Safe' mode and led to the loss of several frames.

It's far from perfect, but Avidemux is a handy tool for anyone that wants to perform basic editing for free and doesn't want to have to convert to another format first.

Download Avidemux 2.5.6 in Softonic

The good thing about Free Video to JPG Converter is that it allows you not only to take single screenshots (by clicking on the "Make snapshot" button) or pressing the S key) but also take multiple screenshots by selecting any of its automatic saving options. Also, there's the possibility of trimming the video so that you take screenshots only from a certain fragment.

On the downside, I missed having more configuration options, such as being able to choose the picture format, customize keyboard shortcuts or choosing a naming pattern for the screenshots.

An easy-to-use, effective tool to convert your favourite movie scenes into pictures.

Download Free Video to JPG Converter 5.0.9 in Softonic

The input window shows the various bars in which the program is structured. First you can extract capturing video from any camcorder, webcam, and so on. Secondly, the editor itself, to make cuts, adds multiple tracks of audio and video, including transitions, etc. Then you also have the screen effects and the editing stage in the DVD menu. Here you can customize the screen automatically when introducing a DVD in the drive. Finally, it remains only to save the movie with a simple click and set the format in the editor. In addition to all this you can also change the play speed and add a limited number of video effects as well as gain full control over the audio and the video streams. There's also options to directly burn into VCD DVD format for playback on external DVD players.

A basic but powerful DVD editing package that doesn't offer many advanced options but does the job quickly.

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We say “promising” because Videolan Movie Creator is still at a very early stage of development. According to developers, it’s just a pre-alpha release, with many key features missing and lots of bugs. But we were so eager to take a look at it that we couldn’t resist the temptation!

I must say that our testing of Videolan Movie Creator has been quite an adventure. Yes, the program is unstable and buggy, so expect quite a few crashes. Also, I wasn’t able to import images into the editor – only videos and audio files. But despite these problems, I think Videolan Movie Creator could become a really nice, easy-to-use video editor.

First of all, Videolan Movie Creator features a well-designed interface, in black, gray and orange. Also, it includes a wizard that guides you though your first steps with the program and which comes in especially handy when you’re creating your first project.

Finally, managing media in Videolan Movie Creator is really simple. You have the typical dual-screen interface featured in many video editors, and a timeline at the bottom. All you need to do is drag and drop your media there and then you can arrange it any way you want - cut it into fragments, add effects, you name it!

Videolan Movie Creator is still a very early alpha version, but it’s a very promising tool that will hopefully turn into a simple, powerful video editor.

Download Videolan Movie Creator 0.1.0 Pre-alpha in Softonic

vReveal features a nicely designed interface with three main areas, accessible via tabs: Gallery, displays the videos you’ve imported into the program; Enhance, features all the improvements and effects you can apply to them; and Save & Share, lets you save the enhanced video to your computer or share it online on Facebook and YouTube.

The effects and filters included in vReveal are surprisingly good. You can stabilize the image, add more contrast, or sharpen it. You’ll also be able to convert your video to sepia or black and white, make its colors more vivid or make it look like a vintage recording. There’s also a special Fine Tune section to adjust the filters you apply more accurately.

The best thing about vReveal is that it doesn’t require any video editing skills. Anyone can use it! All the effects are applied with a simple click on the corresponding button, and the result can be seen on vReveal's built-in video player right away. You can also use the half-screen option, which displays the video both before and after editing.

vReveal is an incredibly easy-to-use, handy video editor with which you can enhance your videos and apply some special effects to them in a couple of clicks.

Download vReveal 2.2.1.10160 in Softonic

Video Cutter Max allows you to cut parts from videos, making them shorter or more precise. It supports a number of input formats, and will allow you to save your cut videos as AVI, ASF,WMV,MOV, FLV, MPG, MPEG,MP4, RM or YUV. A nice touch is that Video Cutter Max also allows you to pick your video codecs - or it chooses a default if you don't care.

For more advanced users, Video Cutter Max also allows you to customize output settings, something you'll find under the Custom (Advanced) options. Here you'll be able to tweak things like bitrate, aspect and frame rate, among others. All users will be able to set the computer to shut down after the job is run, which is also a nice touch.

One thing we learned through trial and error is what Video Cutter Max actually cuts when you press Start. Once you add your video, you'll see it in the built-in player. Then you must select the Start and End of your cutting selection. Initially, we though this selection was the part you wanted to cut, but the selection (highlighted in yellow when you have picked the start and end) is actually the part of the video you want to keep. Bear this in mind when cutting your videos!

Video Cutter Max will effectively cut pieces of your videos, but it's by no means the best program on the market.

Download Video Cutter Max 1.0.0.6 in Softonic

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Matroska is one of the most advanced Container Formats being able to support subtitles, multiple audio streams, DVD-like menus and more without for MKV files, no problem. The other big advantage of Matroska is that it also saves disk space and yet still offers relatively high image quality.

MKVToolnix is very easy to use. It can be used for displaying and adding audio tracks and subtitles or simply checking the integrity of a file just by browsing to it. Once you've browsed to a file, you can select which aspects you want to change or modify using the General Track Options, Format Specific Options or Extra Options depending on what you need. To change elements, you need to simply click the Start Muxing option.

If you use the MKV Matroska format regularly and need to modify files, then MKVToolnix is a simple and fast tool to help you.

Download MKVToolnix 4.6.0 in Softonic

Windows Movie Maker is fine if you want something basic but if you want something tailored for photo-video purposes, Foto2Avi may be able to help. Foto2Avi is a freeware video/photo converter that allows you to edit footage or photos and convert to AVI, MPEG or FLV format without being Stephen Spielberg. In reality, it's best used as a photo-film editor although you could feasibly use it for simple video editing too.

It's particularly good at trimming audio to fit the need of your creations as it gives you minute control over where your music kicks in and out. It doesn't however automatically shrink footage to fit a music track. Foto2Avi doesn't work using a timeline, like most video editors - rather it takes a step by step approach to piecing together your film which can be very limiting but it does at least make it easy to use.

Foto2Avi is a useful tool for anyone that wants to make their photo collections that little bit more special.

Download Foto2Avi 2.2 in Softonic

Well, this is why subtitles were invented for, and subtitle editors too, like Subtitle Processor.

Not only does Subtitle Processor enable you to edit subtitles by cutting and joining sentences, correcting typos, removing extra spaces and other tools, but also helps you synchronize the text and the video image with great precision thanks to its embedded player.