Should You Upgrade To Movie Maker 2 - McGraw-Hill Tablet PC User Manual

CHAPTER 12: Get the Most from Those Multimedia Applications

Should You Upgrade to Movie Maker 2?

Under most circumstances, there would be no question about whether you should
upgrade to Windows Movie Maker 2. Microsoft is always working to make their
programs work better and include more features in each release. Here's a partial
list of the improvements in Movie Maker 2:
■
Support for Windows Media 9
■
AutoMovie, which automatically converts your home videos and digital
photos into a movie
■
Nearly 30 video effects, including blurs and fades
■
Dozens of video transitions, titles, and credits
■
A classier, easier-to-use interface
With all the great things about Movie Maker 2, you're probably wondering why
we're wasting time talking about whether you should upgrade. The somewhat
surprising answer is that your Tablet PC may not be powerful enough to run
Windows Movie Maker 2.
To see what I'm talking about, open your web browser and point it to this
address: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/moviemaker/downloads/
moviemaker2.asp. This web page, part of which appears in Figure 12-11, lists
the system requirements for Windows Movie Maker 2.
As Figure 12-11 shows, the minimum system requirements include a 600 MHz
Pentium III processor or the equivalent, along with at least 128MB of RAM.
While all the Tablet PCs that I know of can beat these minimum requirements,
they don't do so by much. Add in the additional processing overhead required
by the handwriting recognition engine in the Tablet PC, and you can see that
running Windows Movie Maker 2 will push most Tablet PCs.
When you move on to the Recommended Computer Requirements section
of the page, none of the initial generation of Tablet PCs has that kind of processing
power (1.5 GHz), and few can even be upgraded to the recommended amount of
RAM (512MB). You will want to take steps to free the maximum amount
of RAM and processing power available when you run Movie Maker 2. See
the "How to Free Resources for Movie Maker 2" box for some steps you
can take.
So now you see where the problem lies, and why automatically upgrading may
not be your best choice. You can resolve this problem in a few ways. If you have
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