The dongle definitely lights up. As part of the installation, there was something like HASP installed, which I surmise is related to dongle activation and permissions. I recall Windows update installing an update to this HASP utility.
The n.i.b. software that contained the purple dongle reads "ProfileMaker Pro 5 ...
Photostudio". There is a check in the checkbox for PM5 Measure Tool. When I launch MT without the dongle, I get the message "some features in demo mode". When I plug in the dongle, it lights up. Then when I launch MT, I don't get the message about "some features in demo mode".
I'm almost certain I recall the first X-Rite support tech mentioning something very close to ... "I can unplug my dongle and the Save button is still enabled."
Wow, this clears up some misconceptions on my part. I apparently assumed ... falsely it appears ... that a check in the PM5 MeasureTool checkbox meant I'd be able to save profiles. Sigh ... I'm glad that support tech didn't have a bridge in NYC he wanted to sell to me :-)
The support tech did annotate our phone conversation with a comment about:
Case Description 00061940: Lynn is trying to create a profile with MeasureTool, but isn't able to save his targets.
He's using a very non-standard workflow, so I've asked him to send us both his resulting profiles and the target TIFF files for review
(done ... didn't hear back from x-rite so called again
BTW, the above may or may not explain the "semi-random flawed profiles" I've been getting, but that can hold for another thread.