Microsoft today released Windows Live Movie Maker from beta as part of a refresh to the Windows Live Essentials download. Windows Live Movie Maker is the first application designed for Windows 7 and is built to make movies from photos and videos very quickly.

The new Windows Live Movie Maker can be downloaded here for free.

Windows Live Movie Maker takes advantage of Windows 7 including expanded support for HD video so users can create great looking movies using the most popular devices on the market such as a mobile phone or a Flip Video camcorder.

Windows Live Movie Maker allows users to quickly and easily create short movies and photo slideshows that can be shared the way that works best for users. The AutoMovie feature in Windows Live Movie Maker literally creates a polished movie out of photos and video clips in under a minute, which means it can take less time to create a movie than it does to watch it.

The softwrare also offers editing and sharing of videos. "I recently used Windows Live Movie Maker to create a movie out of 50 photos, three video clips, and a music soundtrack in 30 seconds using the AutoMovie feature in Windows Live Movie Maker. I couldn?t have done that in iMovie ? it doesn?t have a feature for combining photos, videos and music in one automatic step, "said Brian Hall, Windows Live team .



Basic features:

- Movie Maker can create great looking movies in under a minute. Just add your photos and videos to Movie Maker, and select your music, then click the Auto Movie button. Auto Movie will knit those photos and videos together with striking effects and transitions, and even fit them to a soundtrack of your choosing. Basic movie ? done. If you want to spend more time editing your video clips, adding animations, or visual effects you can, but the heavy lifting is done for you in less than a minute.

- More customization features easily add polish to your movie. The new Movie Maker has more than 60 transitions, 18 pan and zoom options, and 20 visual effects that you can apply to photos or videos, plus video trim, split, and fade capabilities.

- It?s simple to share your movie. Videos are for sharing, so Movie Maker makes it easy to share online with a few clicks. Post your video to YouTube right from the main menu, or add a quick plug-in and easily publish to Facebook. Microsoft will be adding more plug-ins to popular sharing sites in the future. You can also burn your creation to a DVD or save it in high definition to play on your TV. Save it down to a smaller format and transfer it to a mobile device or send it via e-mail.

- It works great with Windows 7. With Windows 7 and Windows Live Movie Maker it?s easy to get your photos and videos off your camera and onto your PC. You?ll also get increased capabilities for creating HD movies and enjoy support for additional file formats ? including QuickTime formats, AVCHD and .MPEG4. And most importantly, if you use Office or Windows already, you?ll find Movie Maker easy to navigate because it uses a similar design.

In order to take advantage of the latest technologies available on the Windows platform, Microsoft has optimized the new Windows Live Movie Maker for Windows Vista and Windows 7. As a result users get support for newer file formats like HD, a new graphics driver model which brings more reliable and stable support for high-end graphics, and a new engine on top of DirectX, which improves speed and enables even more advanced capabilities over time. For all those who are still using Windows XP, Windows Movie Maker 2.1 for Windows XP is still the option.