I tried both the Autostitch program and the Microsoft program. Autostitch has more configuration options, Microsoft has a much simpler, user-friendly interface. Autostitch stitched two pictures (out of a 12-picture set) that Microsoft wouldn't.

The most important thing I learned playing with both programs is that the key to successful panorama is this: the more overlap you have, the better your chances. When I was stitching manually, minimal overlap was what made it easy. With the stitching programs, 25-35% overlap seemed to work best. I end up taking and stitching 16 pictures where before I had just 12, but with large overlaps I don't have to be as careful framing each shot so the picture taking is actually faster, and of course the stitching process takes under a minute instead of more than an hour.

tanstaafl.