Microsoft "Live" /Windows 7

[The Knize]

Anyone having any problems with this application/set of applications as far as slowing their computers way down and making a computer less stable?

I had been using Windows XP which had built in Movie Maker, which seemed to work great for my every 3 months or so purposes for video editing and publishing. Better than the third party products I had tried by far. But I had switched over to Windows 7, which told me it no longer contained Movie Maker and I would have to download MS "Live" to get it, which seems to be an entire suite of stuff I did not want, along with what appears to be an inferior, for my purposes version of Movie Maker. (Among other things the files this new version of Movie Maker creates seem to be enormous compared to the XP version.)

Anyway, since installing "Live" my computer seems to crawl in doing any on-line activity. I cannot even tell how to get the thing off my computer. The item in remove programs looks like it is 1/2 a meg and I know what I installed must have been 1/2 a gig, given the download.

I also had to reboot my computer to install a Norton 360 update around the same time, which is unusual, so that could be the issue, too, I suppose.

Anyone have any better ideas for Movie Making on a PC" Don't tell me to move to a Mac. I already know Mac does this much better!

 

[Greybeard]

Anyone having any problems with this application/set of applications as far as slowing their computers way down and making a computer less stable?

I had been using Windows XP which had built in Movie Maker, which seemed to work great for my every 3 months or so purposes for video editing and publishing. Better than the third party products I had tried by far. But I had switched over to Windows 7, which told me it no longer contained Movie Maker and I would have to download MS "Live" to get it, which seems to be an entire suite of stuff I did not want, along with what appears to be an inferior, for my purposes version of Movie Maker. (Among other things the files this new version of Movie Maker creates seem to be enormous compared to the XP version.)

Anyway, since installing "Live" my computer seems to crawl in doing any on-line activity. I cannot even tell how to get the thing off my computer. The item in remove programs looks like it is 1/2 a meg and I know what I installed must have been 1/2 a gig, given the download.

I also had to reboot my computer to install a Norton 360 update around the same time, which is unusual, so that could be the issue, too, I suppose.

Anyone have any better ideas for Movie Making on a PC" Don't tell me to move to a Mac. I already know Mac does this much better!

Did you download and install Windows Live OneCare with your Windows Live package? This conflicts with Norton since they provide essentially the same services and try to take priority over each other. If so, then this could be the problem.

The full install of Windows Live also installs some utilities, uploaders, links, programs and a toolbar at computer start up that become active when you start your browser. They also automatically search for updates every time you go on line. They all steal a little memory and bandwidth. I don't use Windows Live so I'm not sure, but there should be a method in options or preferences to turn off the services you don't use.

What shows in remove programs is the core engine. If you remove that it will de-activate most of the other apps. Some files and registry entries will stll remain that you would have to manually delete to recover all your disk space.

I have used Movie Maker II occasionally. I don't know if there's another app out there that directly compares to it for your requirements. You could browse the site linked below for information on, and links to, other apps to see if anything is worth a try.

http://www.videohelp.com/tools




- Peter

 

[Omnichron]

also when you do the live care install you can choose which components to install I use MM II and installed it this way without all the other bloatware. If you need help let me know. My PC runs really good with it, 4gb memory and 3.8 Quadcore CPU plus 1 terabyte of HD space.

 

[Omnichron]

and please... please remove Norton 360, it is a resource hog no matter what your config. Go with AVG free av.

 

[xillion]

Here is a list I found of some free Movie Maker alternatives. Videospin is another free editor.

 

[Omnichron]

Here is a list I found of some free Movie Maker alternatives.

very good info. I'm downloading portable MM

 

[Omnichron]

if you choose to remove Norton, use their removal utility. It does a very good job of erasing itself from your programs list.

 

[Hank21]

AVG is very good and has a link scanner.

Microsoft Security Essentials is very light on resources.

Both are free and work well.

 

[The Knize]

Greybeard,

That was excellent. Many thanks. The whole Miscrosoft Live was a pretty frustrating experience. I had not idea I was pulling in "OneCare" with that download. I bet that is the problem.

Thanks for all the other tips from everyone.

I would prefer not to take Norton 360 off. I used to hate Norton (used to love it in the early days, but that was a long time ago) and it was a mess and a resource hog. But the reviews on the 2009 verision were that Norton had redone the entire thing and it was not a resouce hog and was one off the top programs of this nature. I was extremely skeptical, but had become fed up with MicroTrend by that time, and gave it a try. Norton seems pretty good to me these days. I would say that it clearly did not seem to be hogging resources and seemed to be very smooth and complete all around. I am still pretty annoyed with Norton from a few years back, but not annoyed enough to go to some other program at this point! AVG Free does not do nearly what Norton 360 does, whcih is not to say that one really needs everthing Norton 360 does!

Thanks, Omnicrhon, for the offer. It is not that MS Move Maker II runs poorly on my machine or takes up too much space. It does not seem to crash or anything. But it seems a lot harder to use and to be missing features from the XP version. Maybe it is just set up differently and I have having trouble figuring it out. And it seems to resist making a resonably sized video out put file. The XP version had a choice of output that was supposedly tuned for a 500 mps or so network, as I recall, that seemed fine for my purposes. A one hour video tape from my camera seemed to come out to about 130 megs. MM II lacks that kind of choice or much choice at all. Going with the option MMII provided natively the video came out to 1.3 gig. I had to download some more MS stuff, like video encorder as I recall, and download a "profile custom" someone created and was making available that supposedly helped get the file size down to something more reasonable, but it still came up to around 500 meg. I reall do not understand MS crippling Movie Maker II so that I have to run around trying to find fixes to get back to an XP file size! Any thoughts on a custom profile that would get me back to what MM used to include?

Many thanks!

 

[Omnichron]

http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/8/6/f869f03b-c17a-4419-be47-bd08fff676fa/MM26_ENU.msi

 

[The Knize]

http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/8/6/f869f03b-c17a-4419-be47-bd08fff676fa/MM26_ENU.msi

Thanks. I assume that this will run in Windows 7!

This pretty much cuts through all the crap in getting me back to what I had before doesn't it?!

Pretty darn sharp Omnichron! I am in your debt. There is all kinds of whining on the internet about MS taking away features in MM II, but I never saw any reference anywhere that suggested anything like "if you do not like the new version, you can always use the old one--download here!" And Microsoft sure did not reveal anywhere that I saw that there was a way of getting Move Maker in Windows 7 other than to download "Live."

I might even have searched for an free-standing version of MM, but did not see one. Mad props to you, Omnichron!

EDIT: Just installed it and fired it up. Works perfectly. All of the output options removed in the MS LIve version are there. I tried the one I used to use with a short clip and it works perfectly. Timeline view was something folks complained about MS removing. It is there and works fine, and is what I usually use. Thanks again. I can do what I want to do again!