Our Review:

Windows Live Photo Gallery, also known as "Windows Photo Gallery", is an all-rounder for managing your photos (much the same as Picasa), but a little-publicised feature is available in the Make menu: "Panorama Stitcher".

It is a no-brainer - simply select the photos from the thumbnails viewer, and the program does the rest. Cropping and adjustment is immediately at hand under the Fix menu.

The program works much like AutoStitch. The blending results, incidentally, are superior as compared to purchased programs such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. Highly recommended all around.

Update: As part of the free Windows Essentials which has reached end of support, the product is no longer available for download from Microsoft but you still can obtain it from the "Get It" link above via a third party website.