I have been having problems with the Show View Options menu ever since the first version of OSX came out. What happens is that I open a window, go to the trusty (untrusty?) Show View Options menu and pick a background color for the window. The trouble is, that the color never seems to stick. If I close and reopen the window the color changes. I'm currently on a MacBook Pro but this problem occurred on my old G4 too. Has anyone else had this problem? Will dumping a preferences file help? Anyone have an idea that might fix this? Thanks!

I think the trick to customizing a Finder window in OS X is this:

1. Open a Finder window.
2. Customize it in every way you want.
3. Close immediately. Don't go into any other folders, just close the window. When it reopens, it should be exactly the way you want it.

However, this method is not completely foolproof, as it only works when I click the Finder icon on the dock. When the Macintosh HD icon is double-clicked, it still reverts to the default look. So I've just gotten into the habit of clicking on the dock icon to open my Finder windows.