Credit goes to AussieNinja, for this information:
First I use TMPGEnc to convert the wmv to mpeg
(
http://www.tmpgenc.net/)
Then I convert the mpeg to AVI using Virtualdub (www.virtualdub.org)
I'm sure there are applications that convert directly from wmv to avi, but I am familiar with my method, and it's FREE!
Then I use 123 AVI to GIF converter. (www.bitsoft.net) to convert the selected frames from the AVI video to an animated gif.
Then I use ULEAD GIF Animator to remove the frames that I don't want to make it a smaller file size to use as my avatar.