One of the frustrating settings in Windows Vista that doesn’t work correctly as it did in XP is the ability to apply folder view settings of the current folder to all folders. You can still set this option the same way you would in XP, but it just doesn’t seem to work. Well, there is a fix available here.

Just follow the instructions:

1. Copy the reg file to desktop and and merge it to the registry.
2. Close all windows before merging
3. Open folder options and apply the view settings to all like you do in XP.

Of course the usual disclaimer about the registry applies: if you are not comfortable making this change, do not do it. I did apply this on my work machine and it works as expected.