I just had a problem with Windows Movie Maker 2.1 on Windows XP SP2 and I have managed to resolve it. I'm posting in case it helps anyone else in the same boat.
Whenever I start Windows Movie Maker, a message box pops up complaining of an "Unspecified Error". I Googled the error and found that other people had the startup problem but the solutions were usually reinstall (the OS or Movie Maker), or use System Restore, neither of which I am willing to do.
I just did some debugging and found the cause in my case: I had changed the folder attributes on my temporary files folder. This can happen if you customize the folder icon. Movie Maker 2.1 checks the attributes on startup and fails if the folder is read-only. I guess it'll also fail if the folder is missing but I haven't checked that.
This instance of the problem is easy to fix. Go to a command prompt (Start|Programs|Accessories|Command Prompt) and type
Set
followed by the Enter key
The resulting output usually contains a line like:
TEMP=C:\DOCUME~1\UserName\LOCALS~1\Temp
The stuff after the = sign is the path to the temporary files folder. You need to change directory to the parent folder of this temporary files folder (usually C:\DOCUME~1\UserName\LOCALS~1) by executing command
CD C:\DOCUME~1\UserName\LOCALS~1
followed by the Enter key
Then check that the Temp sub-folder exists using the dir command. If it doesn't already exist, create it using
MD Temp
followed by the Enter key
In my case the folder was there but the attributes included the read-only flag, so I reset the attributes by executing command
attrib -r +a -s -h Temp
followed by the Enter key
Start Movie Maker and it works.
Note: you can perform all of the above steps using Windows Explorer if you aren't using the defaults of hiding system files etc. but it's easy using the command prompt.
Whenever I start Windows Movie Maker, a message box pops up complaining of an "Unspecified Error". I Googled the error and found that other people had the startup problem but the solutions were usually reinstall (the OS or Movie Maker), or use System Restore, neither of which I am willing to do.
I just did some debugging and found the cause in my case: I had changed the folder attributes on my temporary files folder. This can happen if you customize the folder icon. Movie Maker 2.1 checks the attributes on startup and fails if the folder is read-only. I guess it'll also fail if the folder is missing but I haven't checked that.
This instance of the problem is easy to fix. Go to a command prompt (Start|Programs|Accessories|Command Prompt) and type
Set
followed by the Enter key
The resulting output usually contains a line like:
TEMP=C:\DOCUME~1\UserName\LOCALS~1\Temp
The stuff after the = sign is the path to the temporary files folder. You need to change directory to the parent folder of this temporary files folder (usually C:\DOCUME~1\UserName\LOCALS~1) by executing command
CD C:\DOCUME~1\UserName\LOCALS~1
followed by the Enter key
Then check that the Temp sub-folder exists using the dir command. If it doesn't already exist, create it using
MD Temp
followed by the Enter key
In my case the folder was there but the attributes included the read-only flag, so I reset the attributes by executing command
attrib -r +a -s -h Temp
followed by the Enter key
Start Movie Maker and it works.
Note: you can perform all of the above steps using Windows Explorer if you aren't using the defaults of hiding system files etc. but it's easy using the command prompt.