I have been using a Mac for over 22 years at this point, and I still have Finder windows open with a view of files in something other than List view. It drives me crazy every time.

I like list view for the same reason I like ll and ls -la on the command line. If I am looking at files, and directories/folders, I want to see lotsa information. List view, when setup for what you need, gives you exactly what you need.

Anyway if you use a Mac this can help make sure you have Finder always open in list view. I am most putting this here because I want to be able to find it again:

Open finder

Select your hard disk

Command + J

Check the top two check boxes (Always open in list view, browse in list view)

Click use as defaults

Open Applications->Utilities->Terminal

sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -exec rm {} \;

Enter your root password, press enter

How to set Finder to always use list view

The second to last command there should give you pause: sudo and rm . The first one gives the command root privilege to everything on your harddrive. The second one removes/deletes files. Used in combination means you can delete some really important stuff. The good news is that the find command is searching for .DS_Store files, which contain information about how you want Finder windows to open. While we should be aware of what we are doing when using sudo and rm in any instance, in this case we are good to go.

Before doing the terminal command take a moment to review the rest of the Finder settings. Here is what I prefer to see as default when I open a new Finder window in List view:

Once you have it set as you want go ahead and run the terminal command and sing a little prayer.