The Movie Maker in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 had more transitions and support for DVD burning.

The HD version in Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista also added support for capturing from HDV camcorders.

This version is basically the same as Windows Movie Maker 2.1 and included all of the old effects and transitions, but it excludes the ability to capture video.

An updated version, Windows Live Movie Maker 2011, was released on August 17, 2010, adding features such as webcam capture, support for high-definition video, the ability to upload videos directly to SkyDrive, Facebook, and YouTube through their respective web APIs, and the ability to add media files stored on network shares to projects.

Support for recording voice-overs was restored, along with an audio mixer and integration with several free stock music services.

[15] On September 8, 2021, Microsoft acquired Clipchamp, a web-based video editing app for an undisclosed amount,[16] and integrated it as part of Windows 11 on March 9, 2022.

This newly acquired video editing app reintroduces the timeline editing layout that had been previously removed in Windows Live Movie Maker, along with additional features including a text-to-speech generator powered by Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft OneDrive integration.

When in Storyboard view, the video project appears as a film strip showing each scene in clips.

Additionally, the Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Movie Maker support importing MPEG-2 Program streams and DVR-MS formats.

[19] Importing of other container formats such as MP4/3GP, FLV and MOV, and AAC are also supported if the necessary codecs are installed and the system is running Windows 7 or later.

The efficiency of the importing and editing process is heavily dependent on the amount of file fragmentation of the hard disk.

The most reliable results can be obtained by adding an extra hard disk dedicated for scratch space, and regularly re-formatting/defragmenting it, rather than simply deleting the files at the end of the project.

Fragmented AVI files result in jerky playback on the editing screen, and make the final rendering process much longer.

An AutoMovie feature offers predefined editing styles (titles, effects and transitions) for quickly creating movies.

If no video or image is present, Movie Maker allows exporting the sound clips in Windows Media Audio format.

The Windows Vista version includes a different set of transitions, effects and title/credits animations while dropping a few older ones.

Early versions (V2 onwards) of Windows Movie Maker had a flexible interface so programming custom effects and other content were possible via XML.

[26] Many longstanding users were disappointed by the removal of so many features in the effective re-writing of the software in Live Movie Maker 2009.

In June 2008, a memo purportedly by Bill Gates from January 2003 was circulated on the Internet in which he heavily criticized the downloading process for Movie Maker at the time.

Upon installing and executing the program, the user was greeted with a dialogue box explaining that it was a trial and a purchase was required.