I do the following which disables vista from deciding which way to view folders. You need to use regedit to do it. I know it seems a bit of a pain, but it works. Then you choose which way you'd like to view your folders and it will use that as the default view.
* Click on Start, and in the Start Search field type “REGEDIT”, and then press Enter.
* If User Account Control prompts you, provide consent by clicking on Continue or entering a password.
* In the left hand pane, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
* Right click on the “Bags” sub-key and click on Delete. When asked to confirm the operation click on Yes.
* Right click on the "Shell" sub-key and from the menu that appears click on New, and then click on Key.
* Give the new key a name of "Bags" (without the quotes).
* Right click on the "Bags" sub-key and from the menu that appears click on New, and then click on Key.
* Give the new key a name of "AllFolders" (without the quotes).
* Right click on the "AllFolders" sub-key and from the menu that appears click on New, and then click on Key.
* Give the new key a name of "Shell" (without the quotes).
* Select the "Shell" key that you just creaited.
* In the right hand pane of the Registry Editor, right click on an empty area and from the menu click on New, and then click on String Value.
* Give the new REG_SZ (String Value) a name of "FolderType" (without the quotes).
* Double click on the FolderType String Value and give it a value of "NotSpecified" (without the quotes).
* Close the Registry Editor.
* Click on Start, press the arrow next to the power buttons, and select Log Off from the menu that appears.
* Log back in and customize your Windows Explorer folder view settings as desired.
If you would like to reset Windows Explorer back to the way it should act by default:
* Click on the Start button, and in the Start Search field paste the following bold text command: REG DELETE "HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders" /f
* Press the Enter key to execute the command.
