Agony with Windows Movie Maker Ver 2.1 (XP)
 

I have been asked to string together a string of video clips from various sources for a retirement presentation.
This is not an area where I have much expertise, and the only tool I have to hand is Windows Movie Maker that came with the machine.
I would guess that development of this piece of software was tasked to the "B" or even "C" team - the user interface is 'orrible - e.g. you can't pick a selection by double clicking on it - you have to move the cursor to a "next" button elsewhere on the screen.
I could live with that, but the programme keeps on crashing, and wanting to send all the details to Redmond.
At first I thought that this was because some the the file names were too long, so renamed them so that they were shorter - but still it crashes. I do rather wonder whether there isn't possibly a DRM issue (some of the clips have a commercial origin).
Can anyone offer any clues to what might be going on, and (more importantly) how I can get around it? Deadline is approaching ...
The other charming little feature is that every now and then it will identify a particular clip as "not registered" and refuse to load it. This is irritating because one out of a set of four clips gets flagged as "not registered" even though they all come from the same source. Any comments on this?
I might add that it is totally non-partisan in that refuses both .WMV files as well as .MPG files.
My backup strategy is to seek out another piece of software that needs to be (a) easy to use (basically like Win Movie Maker), and (b) cheap (as in "free") since I don't intend to earn a living doing this.

Help anyone? Please .... Pretty Please?

Try Tools --> Options --> Compatibility.

Try fiddling with the filter check boxes.

I never have any problems with MM until the Video build line
starts getting beyond 30 min duration. Then it freezes for no
apparent reason (likely memory).

Good idea to save the project each time you add a vid or pic.

Failing all else try reinstalling WMM.

Try updating to v2.6

Free stuff through Google
 

Did a quick search fro 'free video edit' and this came up :-
Top 5 free video editing software programs

v2.6 is for Vista users hellsbrink. Feline uses XP same as me.

Sorry, got some duff info when I searched for an idea.

Feline, and yourself, can always try this:

Wax - [Download]

But make sure you keep Ceiling Cat away from it so more videos of you don't appear on pervytube.