I received an email with a video clip attachment ‘Edit2.MSWMM (51 KB)’. However, when attempting to open the video clip the following error message appears ‘Windows Movie Maker. The file ‘C:Documents and SettingsMy DocumentsMy Videomovie.wmv’ cannot be found. Would you like to browse for it? The computer is a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz with 256 MB RAM running Windows XP Home Edition.

To create a movie in Windows Movie Maker, you import existing movies or still pictures. These are called source files. In order to preserve disk space, Windows Movie Maker does not store a copy of these source files (movies or pictures) in the Windows Movie Maker file you are creating. Instead, it only stores a reference to these source files. So, the source files always need to be present on the computer on which the Windows Movie Maker file is being used. Your friend emailed you the file ‘Edit2.MSWMM’. This file only contains a reference to the source movie file, which is ‘movie.wmv’. That is why a prompt appears each time asking you where the movie.wmv file is located, as your system cannot find the file. So, to view the movie your friend will either have to email you the ‘movie.wmv’ file, or they could save the Windows Movie Maker project as an actual movie, by going to the ‘File’ menu > ‘Save Movie’¦’. The latter option will produce an actual movie with the source file and any editing which has been completed in Windows Movie Maker. Be aware that either of these options will result in your friend having to give you a very large file, which may not fit in your email box! You may wish to investigate other options (e.g. copy to CD) in order to transfer the movie. Before copying any movies, I suggest you check the copyright status of the movie.