Windows Movie Maker Continues to Crash

Hi, this is Windows XP running with Service Pack 3 and Windows Movie Maker 2.1. I am having this computer since past 1.5 years and never had any problem with Movie Maker. But since past few days, don’t know what went wrong, it is now crashing every time. Whenever I start Movie Maker and add a file, a pop up appears saying “Window Movie Maker encountered a problem and needs to be closed.”

That’s too irritating. After doing some searches I came to know that if we don’t have IE 7 on the PC, Movie Maker can create such problems, is that true? I don’t have Internet Explorer 7 on my computer? Any idea how can I get rid of this annoying problem and continue using Movie Maker?

Thanks for your helps.

Hello Greer, i will suggest you two things that can surely fix the problem.

First, make sure your Video driver is updated to the most recent version. You can either download and install the driver from manufacturer's official website or directly from the Device Manager.

Second, As you said the problem started recently, simply Restore your system to any earlier working restore point where you dint had the problem. It will be fixed.

Hey guys, even i am having the same problem. Me to with XP SP3. My Movie Maker crashes just after 4 to 5 seconds after launching. It wont even allow me to add any thing. I have tried restoring my system and even updated the drivers but still the same problem.

There could be several reasons for the said problem including the one mentioned by Greer about Internet Explorer. There are several users who reported that movie maker problem arrived after they installed Internet Explorer 7. Hence if you guys have IE7 installed on your system, try uninstalling or upgrading it to version 8. For more help on this you can check MS KB describing How to uninstall Internet Explorer 7 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927177/en-us

Furthermore, if you have ffdshow codec installed on your system, try to disable the same, it could fix the problem. You can do this by going to Movie Maker > Tools > Options > Compatibility tab and uncheck ffdshow. Thats it.