I had another email from Nicholas at Helicon.
He has advised it is okay to pass on to other users the new update patch build 18, which will take your harmony M to version 1.8
In fact he is hoping owners will, so they can get more feedback on the patch working on other systems.
I ahve applied it to mine and it works fine, AND the chord recognition IS much quicker.
Anyway just thought I would let M users know.
Dennis