When Microsoft launched the "wave 3" version of its Windows Live Essentials suite back in January (see my review), one big piece of the puzzle was missing: Windows Live Movie Maker, a major reworking of the underappreciated but excellent Windows Movie Maker application from Windows XP days (see my review of Movie Maker 2), was still woefully incomplete and in beta form.

Well, with the release of the final shipping version of Windows Live Movie Maker 1.0, those days are behind us. And what we see is a product that is much more in keeping with the lofty expectations that were established with its predecessors, but reimagined for the needs of today. It's the right movie editing and sharing solution at the right time, and if you've been collecting short home movies and scads of photos but weren't clear on how you could get them in front of friends and family in a quick and easy but high quality way, look no further.