I think I have found a better solution for the folder view problem [Editor's note: The problem lies in trying to change the view on folders outside your home directory; you can do it, but the settings do not stick].
If you don't want to log in as root every time you want to change settings so that the Finder doesn't forget them after you log out, you just have to change the owner of the invisible .DS_Store files within the folder. You do that with the terminal command
sudo chown #yourownername# .DS_StoreIf you want to do this for all .DS_Store files on your hardrives you should try this:
sudo find / -name .DS_Store | xargs chown #yourownername#This should be quite fast but the problem is that paths that contain withespaces arent recognized as one path. so probably you better use this
sudo find / -name .DS_Store -exec chown #yourownername# {} \;[Editor's note: I have not tried this myself, but it makes sense that if you own the .DS_Store file, your changed view settings would be remembered.]
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20020102072815548