The latest Windows 11 Insider Preview build includes a new Microsoft Family app that lets users set parental controls and track their children’s activities, an updated Print Queue design, and a keyboard shortcut that lets you “show more options” in File Explorer and Desktop context menus with fewer clicks.
It also introduced a video editor called Clipchamp.
Microsoft has a long and rather shaky history of including a default video editor in its desktop operating system. The company released a Windows Movie Maker application for Windows Me in 2000 and later brought it to Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8… although for a few years it was called Windows Live Movie Maker.
The company released the last update of Movie Maker in 2012 and it hasn’t even been available for download since 2017.
Windows 10, meanwhile, includes a Microsoft Photos app that has a basic Video Editor built in.
Clipchamp is something new… sort of. It’s not really that new, since it started its life as a web-based video editor that Microsoft acquired last year. Available as a native Windows 11 app starting with Insider Preview Build 22572.
Microsoft says the editor supports trimming, splitting, transitions, animated text, and support for real-time recording using webcams or screen capture. It also has a simplified timeline editing view and access to a stock library with “more than a million royalty-free videos, audio tracks, and images” that users can add to videos.
The Clipchamp app also lets you add text-to-speech content in more than 70 languages, powered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud-based technology.
Don’t have Windows 11 or aren’t a member of the Windows Insider program? You can also take the standalone version of Clipchamp for a spin in a web browser via its desktop apps for Windows and Chrome OS, or with the Clipchamp mobile app for iOS.
One thing I was not expecting when I read Microsoft’s announcement that Clipchamp was included in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview build? That you’d need a subscription to access some features.
Users have noticed that the app only lets you export videos at 480p resolution unless you upgrade to a subscription plan. You’ll need to pay $9 per month for a Creator account to export videos at 720p resolutions or $19 per month for a Business plan for 1080p export capabilities. Those subscriptions also include unlimited cloud storage and access to a stock audio library (you have to pay even more for stock video and images).
Those prices are what Clipchamp currently charges for its existing service, so I guess it shouldn’t be shocking to see same prices bundled with the new version for Windows. But Microsoft curiously didn’t say anything about subscriptions in its release announcement.
Update: Microsoft has adjusted the pricing: you can now export 1080p videos for free, but you’ll still need a subscription to access some features including cloud storage and access to stock audio, video, and image libraries.Â
Other changes in Windows 11 build 22572 include bug fixes, some changes to app names and icons, and the ability to jump straight to the full context menu from the File Explorer or Desktop by holding down the shift key on your keyboard when you right-click. Given that the Windows 11 context menu hides many of the items available in Windows 10 context menus by default, I suspect that I’ll develop the muscle memory to always hold down that shift key when right-clicking in the future.
I woke up to a notification that Clipchamp had been successfully installed and asking if I wanted to launch it. For a moment I freaked out thinking I had been infected by malware or s virus. I am NOT part of the insider program, I have normal windows 11.
@Tarwin said: “I woke up to a notification that Clipchamp had been successfully installed and asking if I wanted to launch it.”
Welcome to Micro$oft’s Opt-In By Default (OIBD) culture – the new “Normal”. I’m surprised you even got a notification!
Oh, it uses javascript to do everything because no cheap developer knows how to make applications designed to run in environments other than web browsers anymore?
And it tells Microsoft everything you’re doing so they can sic some three letter agency on you if you make a video about the wrong thing?
Yeah, I won’t be using it and will probably call it “Clipchimp” in flamewars, or just whenever it comes up because it’s easier to pronounce.
Actually don’t call it clipchimp.
There’s a bunch of other stuff called that.