How to Make a slide show in Windows Movie Maker under Windows Vista?

1. Select Images.

In Windows Photo Gallery, select the images you want to use by clicking the first photo, holding down the SHIFT key, and clicking the last photo.

A good rule of thumb is to include a minimum of 6 photos that are each displayed for 5 seconds, which is the default duration for pictures that are imported and used in Windows Movie Maker. Your movie needs to be at least 30 second long for the photos to get added to the storyboard automatically (as described in the next step).

2. Click Make a Movie.

The pictures you select are automatically imported into Windows Movie Maker and added to the storyboard-including transitions between pictures. You are already well on your way to finishing your slide show (and you didn't even have to click anything yet in Windows Movie Maker)!

You could use the photo slide show project as it is now, and it would make a pretty good DreamScene desktop background video. But you can make it even better by making some changes to your project in Windows Movie Maker.

Here are a few tweaks you could make in Windows Movie Maker to make your Windows DreamScene video look a lot better:

Delete the two titles on the storyboard.

Click the Transitions folder in Windows Movie Maker, click Fade, and then drag it between pictures on the storyboard that have a different transition applied (for example, some images might have a Reveal transition between them).

To avoid a jarring transition when the slide show ends and restarts, copy the first picture and paste it at the end of the storyboard so that the first and last frame are the same and will loop nicely when played using Windows DreamScene.

To copy and paste the first picture, right-click the photo, click Copy, right-click the first empty cell at the end of the storyboard, and then click Paste.

Drag a Fade transition between the photo you just pasted and the one before it on the storyboard.

On the timeline, trim both the first and last photo from five seconds to a little over two seconds. This will reduce the amount of time the first and last photo are displayed, which will give the slide show a more seamless appearance when it repeats.

Here's what this project will look like in Windows Movie Maker.



Now, you need to publish the slide show project as a movie in Windows Movie Maker:

1. In Windows Movie Maker, click Publish Movie.

2. Click This Computer, and then click Next.

3. Type a name for your movie, and then click Next.

4. On the Choose settings for your movie page, click More settings, click Windows Media HD 720p (5.9 Mbps), and then click Publish.

This Windows Media HD setting only appears if your computer is running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate.

5. Click Finish.