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Microsoft’s modern video editor forces you into the cloud, but a nostalgic trip to the Internet Archive offers a better, offline alternative.
If you ever feel like you need a break from social media and influencers, you may long for the more fun-focused video content of yesteryear. Windows Movie Maker was a simple program for creating videos, and it can now be yours once again.
The folks at The Internet Archive uploaded Windows Movie Maker 6.0, making it easily accessible and preserving it. The app has been tested on Windows 7, Windows 10, and Windows 11.
Downloading ancient technology can be a fun way to see how far things have changed over the years. Generally, Windows and its built-in apps have improved since the year 2000. But the modern movie-making app on Windows, Clipchamp, falls short of Windows Movie Maker in one key area.
Clipchamp now requires you to sync content to OneDrive to edit video projects. Media within your projects can be stored locally, but the projects cannot be edited unless you save the project to OneDrive.
That controversial change arguably broke Clipchamp. The app still works, but it does not feel like an app that should be bundled with Windows 11. Instead, it feels like a cloud-based app you should download alongside Microsoft 365.
Windows Movie Maker may lack the modern features of Clipchamp, but at least it works offline.
Perhaps Microsoft could justify requiring OneDrive to edit videos if projects could easily extend across devices, but that's not the case. Microsoft retired Clipchamp for iOS last month, meaning you can no longer export video files from that app. Users are now encouraged to uninstall Clipchamp from any iOS devices.
Microsoft never even made an Android version of Clipchamp, so the company has effectively restricted the app solely to the desktop. There is a web version of Clipchamp, but it is optimized for desktop use.
How to download Windows Movie Maker for Windows 11
Windows Movie Maker was not meant for modern versions of Windows, but it can run on Windows 11 or Windows 10. The download link for the program is available through the Internet Archive.
As a warning, I had to refresh the page a few times to get the link to work. The Internet Archive claimed it was a bad link for some reason, but it does work after refreshing.
The file is available in several formats. I'd argue the easiest to use is the executable file because many people have clicked to install one of those before.
To install Windows Movie Maker, you'll need to click through the installation steps, agree to some terms, and click finish.
Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.
Posted Wednesday 15 July 2026 at 7:54 am AEST (my time).
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