When not at school I often like to make movies and have found a CD-ROM from 1995 called Microsoft 3D Movie Maker. The program seems to have lots of sound effects that I would like to use. However, I cannot find the sound effect files on the disc, even though I can see other bits of video and audio. Is it possible to take the sound effect files from the disc to use in my movies, and how can I do this? The computer is running Windows Vista.

From your description I assume that you have inserted the CD into the drive on the computer and then looked at the contents of the CD to try and locate the various sound effect files. In the first instance, we need to make sure that we are looking for the correct type of files. To do this we need to display the file extensions so we can tell whether something is an audio file. Press the ALT key so the menu bar appears and then go to the “Tools” menu > “Folder Options”. In the Folder Options window, click the “View” tab and untick “Hide file extensions for known file types” then click OK. This will display the file extensions for all files, allowing us to try and find the audio files. Take another look through the CD and see whether you can find any .WAV files, which is the most likely file format for those sound effect files (given that the software is quite old). If you are unable to find any .WAV files for the sound effects then you may wish to use the Search function and search the CD for any files which carry the .WAV file extension.

At this point if you are still unable to find any .WAV files (or other audio files) then it seems like they are not stored on the CD in any particularly usable format. At this point, before proceeding any further, you should disable the display of file extensions to avoid confusion in the future – go back to the “Tools” menu > “Folder Options” and tick “Hide files extensions for known file types” then click OK.

By this stage we have established that the audio files are not in a standard format on the CD and cannot simply be copied and used elsewhere. In this case it is likely that the audio files are in a different kind of format (and may need conversion) or are incorporated into some of the other program files. In either case, without being able to explore the CD myself it will be difficult to make the determination about exactly where the audio files could be hiding. Therefore, your best option would be to install the software on your computer and then check whether you are able to get the audio files from the location where the program has been installed. Be aware, this software was originally designed for Windows 95 so it is questionable whether the software will install on the computer correctly (or even at all) but it would be worthwhile giving it a go. If you are able to successfully install the software then once this has happened look through the directory in which the program was installed (in theory, C:Program Files) to see whether the audio files of interest have been extracted as standard audio files and placed in the directory. If not, then it seems you may not be able to get the files in their original format since they are likely called-up on demand when required by the program itself. You could always try running the program and check whether there is a method to save them out of the program, but it is probably unlikely that the program will even run given its age and the fact that it may not be compatible with Windows Vista.

If you are able to somehow obtain the audio files which you want then make sure that you observe any copyright or other rights over those files, in case the licensing terms do not allow use of those files outside of the original application.