Windows Live MovieMaker is a good tool for creating videos in Windows 7, however, one problem is it doesn’t allow you to import videos directly from network locations. Here we’ll take a look at a quick registry hack that will enable network support.

If you try to add a video file to Windows Live MovieMaker from a network network location, where in this example we’re trying to add a file from our home server…

You’ll get an error message indicating files can’t be added directly from a network folder, and it advises to copy the file to your local machine first. Well, you may not have the space on your machine or the time to transfer it first. Not to mention there is just no reason why you shouldn’t be able to add a file from a network.

We can add network support with a quick registry hack. Click on Start and type regedit into the search box and hit Enter.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker and create a new DWORD value.

Name the value AllowNetworkFiles and set the value data to 1 then click Ok and close out of Registry Editor.

Now you’ll be able to add video files from a network location into MovieMaker.

Conclusion

While you could copy the video from the server to your local machine or external drive as a work around, you shouldn’t have to. This Registry tweak enables network support and works in both Windows 7 and Vista.

Special thanks to the indie band The Krims for providing the video file used in this post.