So when in Crystal mode and you chose to Quit, you are presented with 2 options. Suspend or Stop. Is choosing stop the same as hitting the power switch on a real PC? Because it shuts down very fast. Please advise.
What's the problem? It is the same dialog box that you get when trying to quit Parallels in any mode. Just like the power button on a PC, useful if Windows stops responding. The correct way to shutdown from Crystal (again like any other mode) is to use the Windows Start button - from the menu or by right-clicking the Mac menu bar icon.
Windows defaults to "Delayed Writes" for disk caching. So you may lose your data or other mayhem then? Thisis a very bad idea then.
So what do you do if Windows stops responding and everything freezes? You need a mechanism to close the system without affecting anything else. The only alternatives are to close Parallels - same effect but could affect other VM systems - or power down your Mac, even more risky. So long as you understand the warnings, the stop command is a useful option to have.
If you read my original post - in the Crystal menu you are only presented with Suspend or Stop. No debating Stop is useful. Questioning whether or not it should be presented as an option for closing the session next to Suspend and no other options.
Yes, I read your post. The Crystal menu has options for Stop, Suspend or Windows Start Menu. I agree that it is not obvious that to shut down you have to choose the start menu, but that's the Windows way of doing things!