I can SOOOO empathize with you. My office software has a dongle. It is the most frustrating piece of computer garbage on the face of the earth. I realize it is for security but everything any little crash or power outage or if you have to install a backup, it causes problems that usually cost me about 1000 bucks and tons of hassles. If I had known the issues with this dongle I would have never bought the software and I have never purchased anything that had a dongle since!