Hello Phil1923; Well X7 is a New Ball game, for sure. I like it. But I don't use PP much as you know. But I think it would be best to down load the trial ( When you have some free time to play with the program.) There's lots of new things, and the suite has a lots of new mud flaps added to the program. You can do so much more, except change your mother-in-laws mind.
George
Phil,
The program has the same feel, although the surround frame is a weird gray tone that's not related to your Windows color theme.
EXIF can be read through Document Properties. Looks complete to me.
Curves seems to move normally and in controllable increments.
It opens any CPT files I have, dating back to PP4.
You can create new toolbars - don't know about your own icons, because I've never done that.
I would recommend uninstalling previous versions of CDGS before installing X7. I kept X6 on the comp and there were some problems with file associations.
CDGS X7 is pretty much tied to your Internet connection (Help, Clip Art, etc.). Without a constant connection, it loads very slowly. If you work offline or need to work during an Internet outage, it will load, eventually.