How to mute sections of a video on Windows 10
We’ve talked about how you can remove audio from a video file, and how you can extract a single audio track from a video when multiple audio tracks are present. When it comes to isolating audio from a video, the process is fairly simple. If you’re looking to mute certain sections of a video though, you’ll find you don’t have a lot of options that do not require an advanced video editing app. These apps are rarely free and simple to understand which is why you should use Microsoft’s Movie Maker app for the job. Here’s how you can use Movie Maker to mute sections of a video on Windows 10.
Before you proceed with the method below, make sure your video no longer needs additional editing. If you plan on adding more sound effects to a video, go ahead and do so before you go and mute sections of it.
Install Movie Maker
Microsoft has discontinued Movie Maker so it’ll be a bit difficult to find an official download link for the app. That said, it’s not impossible to get it. We have a detailed post on how you can install Movie Maker from Archive.org and it is the safest way to get the app on Windows 10. Go ahead and download the app, and install it.
Mute sections of a video
Once you have Movie Maker installed, go to the Home tab and click the ‘Add videos and photos’ button. Select the video that you’d like to mute sections of, and add it.
The video will be added to a timeline in the pane on the right. When you select the timeline, an Edit tab will appear on the ribbon. Go to this tab. Play the video and pause it when the section you want to mute starts. Click the Split button. Play the video until you reach the end of the section you want to mute. Pause it, and again, split the video. This will isolate the section you want to mute.
Select that section, and mute it from the ‘Video Volume’ control on the Edit tab. Repeat this process for all sections in the video that you want to mute.
You can accomplish this with the Photos app on Windows 10 as well. It too has video editing features though it is not as intuitive to use as Movie Maker. We’ve written about how you can merge videos with the Photos app on Windows 10. You can also split them and use this same trick to mute a section that you’ve split from the video. If you don’t want to use Movie maker, you should give the Photos app a try.
