GIF Maker AVI Trimmer help

[Memento Mori]

I'm tired of looking aimlessly I'm just gonna ask for help.

I'm going to delve into the world of GIF making. Why? Because it seems like a fun skill that not a lot of people have. And the demand for fresh animated gifs is high.

After a upgraded to Windows 7 in September Ive had so start from scratch really program wise.

I need help/advice for finding both a good GIF making Program and an AVI Trimmer/cutter for taking/choosing clips from video.

I've tried a couple programs Ill talk about here in a second. I'm wanting FREE programs because I don't have the money to spend on this sort of stuff.

Here is some of the stuff Ive tried:

Photoshop CS2: I have a stand alone copy of it that I got from a YouTube vid but when I try to import video all I get is a bunch of white layers idk what's up. It's probably because my copy of the program isn't legit.

Advanced GIF Maker: Im currently using the trial version and Im pretty satisfied, for a GIF specific program it's got a lot of cool features. But it is prone to freezing and I have to pay to upgrade to full.

Microsoft GIF Maker: structurally this program looks old and does really nothing more than allow you to organize images and save into gif format with a clumsy interface. Plus it seems to have trouble opening .AVI files for some reason which makes it useless for me...

As for AVI trimmers/editors I would use (and used to use before I upgraded for that matter) Windows Movie Maker, which worked perfectly fine for it's intended use, but for some reason now I don't have it anymore and idk where [or if] I can download it for free (microsofts website was confusing and really not helpful).

I also used Movavi Video Converter 6.3 which I had torrented and used quite effectively pre-upgrade. But I no longer have that program. And my current troubles with my inability (for some reason) to install a torrent client (bittorrent and uTorrent are both giving me problems, feel free to help me with this too) plus my just plain lack of motivation to go hunt for the torrent I used again really cuts down my chances of taking this path.

Again I would like the AVI Trimmer/editor to be FREE and a safe download. Really I'm only planning on using it for the purpose of trimming video to make GIFs out of.

I actually forgot what else I wanted to mention, but anyone who is able and willing to assist me will recieved my eternal gratitude and a boost of Rep.

Thanks ^^