Installing and first run
AVPrep3 does not install. There is no setup program, no registry entry, and no account. You unzip a folder and run the program inside it.
Unblock the zip before you extract it
Windows marks files that came from the internet, and that mark spreads to everything you extract from an archive. Right click the downloaded zip, choose Properties, tick Unblock at the bottom of the General tab, then click OK and extract.
Do it in that order. If you extract first, you have to unblock several hundred files instead of one.
Where to put the folder
Anywhere you can write to. A folder on your desktop, a second drive, or a memory stick all work. Do not put it in Program Files, because the program keeps its settings in a folder beside itself and Windows does not let ordinary programs write there.
Run AVPrep3.exe. Windows SmartScreen will show a blue box saying it protected
your PC, because the program is not code signed. Choose More info and then
Run anyway. The checksum published on the
download page lets you confirm the file is what it says it is
before you do that.
The data folder
On first run the program creates a data folder next to the executable. Your
settings, your saved presets, your panel layout, your rolling autosaves and the waveform
caches all live in there. Nothing is written anywhere else on your machine.
That is what portable means here in practice. Copy the whole folder to another machine and everything comes with it: the same presets, the same layout, the same autosaves. Delete the folder and the program is gone, with nothing left behind.
The first run walkthrough
The first time you open AVPrep3 a four step guide appears. It covers the shortest path from nothing to a finished file.
- Add and play. Choose Open Media in the Media Bin. Your first files land on the timeline ready for Play. Later files get an Add to Timeline button.
- Trim and cut. Drag either clip edge inward to trim without changing speed. Choose Razor and click a cut, then Select the unwanted half and Delete.
- Mix and add a title. Select the second video and choose Crossfade. Use Add on New Audio Track for music, then lower its volume in Properties. Add Title starts a title at zero for three seconds.
- Export your file. Choose a Platform preset, then Export to pick folder, filename, format and quality.
Dismissing it is remembered. You can bring it back any time from Help → First-run Walkthrough.
docs\keyboard-shortcuts.html in the program folder, and
the full offline copy of these articles at docs\AV-Reference.html.
What AVPrep3 is for
It is a timeline editor. Clips sit on tracks, you arrange them in time, and what the preview shows is what the export produces. It was built for work that has a voice, a music bed under it, some cutaway footage and a title, and that has to end up on a phone screen.
It is not a colour grading suite and not a multitrack audio workstation. Where it stops is covered in the articles that follow, honestly, rather than by pretending.
What it needs
- Windows 10 or 11, 64 bit.
- A few gigabytes of free space for the program, plus room for whatever you export.
- No internet connection. Nothing is uploaded, nothing phones home, and there is nothing to sign in to.