Upgraders will notice there is a new dark gray user interface skin which blends more closely with the interface style of Windows Vista. If you're upgrading from a previous version of Photoshop Elements or Photoshop Album, Elements 5 will detect your catalog file and prompt you to convert it. Elements will save your previous version catalog under a new name so you can still have access to it after the conversion. For my catalog containing approximately 10,000 photos, conversion was initially estimated to take 21 minutes, but it actually took about 10 minutes.
You do not have to uninstall your previous versions of Photoshop Elements when you upgrade to Photoshop Elements 5, but you will not be able to open the converted Elements 5 catalog in the earlier version. Also, your photo creations from earlier versions will not be editable in Photoshop Elements 5, so it is a good idea to keep the old version installed for this reason.
Unfortunately, I found the long wait when launching Photoshop Elements has not been improved in this version.