Video Editing Software - Simple fast trimming of unwanted sections of videos

I just wanted to trim out some unwanted bits of AVI videos.
I don't want any of the fancy stuff like effects.
I do want to be able to get to the right point each time, quickly.

So I was looking for something small, fast, which had good controls for watching and moving through the video.
It had to be free, with no trial period.

First I tried this:

SolveigMM AVI Trimmer (3.44MB)
http://download.cnet.com/SolveigMM-AVI-Trimmer/3000-13631_4-10617085.html

From: http://www.solveigmm.com/?Products&id=AVITrimmer

With this explanation on how to edit a movie: http://www.solveigmm.com/HowTo/how-to-edit-your-movie-to-put-it-on-youtu...

It is pretty good. You flag the start and end of a clip and then add that clip to the list of clips you want to go into the final video. That means you can reorder the clips.

But, it isn't great when it comes to moving through the video. For example I can't find a way to step frame by frame.

Then I tried this one, which is VERY good:

Free Video Dub (5.6MB)
http://download.cnet.com/Free-Video-Dub/3000-13631_4-10780608.html

It is small, and fast.
With this one you simply mark the start and end of the section of video you don't want, and then delete it, so you end up with all the clips you do want. Then you just click "Save".
It lacks the ability to re-order the clips, but I don't normally want that.

The best bit is the ability to move through the video.
See the "shortcuts" popup you get when you click on "S".

So it's really easy to move backwards and forwards to find the right frame to mark.

For simply removing unwanted sections of a video, this must take some beating.

I have noticed that sometimes it gets a bit confused. It seems to be towards the end of a large video. When you cut a section it seems to think it's at the end of the video. The solution is very simple. After marking the end point, just press the spacebar to continue playing, and then click on "delete".

As usual with all installs, take care to de-select the extras

WARNING
Installing "Free Video Dub" appears to result in file C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwmapi.dll being added to your system.
This will cause this error message:

I think on non Vista machines.

The solution is simple, simply rename the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwmapi.dll to say C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwmapi_RENAMED.dll

This is a minor annoyance, and not a reason not to use this software, as long as you know how to get to the system folder and rename a file...carefully.

See:

Error: The procedure entry point IsThreadDesktopComposited could not be located in the dynamic link library USER32.dll
http://neuralnetwriter.cylo42.com/node/2559

Update:
Well, after installing on the laptop, no sign of the unwanted file, so I have to assume for now it was caused by the other editing program.

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I selected no Ask toolbar, but still got one in IE, which is very annoying. Thankfully th solution is quick and easy:

http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/faq.htm

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After a bit of use I still like this program.
It does the simple task of removing unwanted sections of a video very well.