One detail that I'm actually missing from Windows is a Finder toolbar button to jump one folder up in the hierarchy, ie to the parent folder. So I came up with the following ugly but still functionally work-around. First create an AppleScript app with just this line of code:
tell application "Finder" to set target of window 1 to the container ¬
of target of window 1

Then save it as an application, and quit Script Editor. Now show the contents of the application package you just created by control-clicking on the folder and then choosing Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu. Open the Contents folder and edit the
info.plist file in your editor of choice. Adding the following will make the program faceless, so that it does not appear in the Dock when launched:
<key>NSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>
Finally create a nice icon (I made one in Photoshop that looks similar to the navigation buttons, as seen above right), paste it onto the app (in its Get Info window) and drag the app to the Finder toolbar. Done! It looks a little strange when the window is inactive (the icon gets dimmed, differently from the other buttons), but it does work.