The point is, the view settings on a folder may or may not apply to a window showing that folder, depending on how the window got to the folder. It's the window that has view settings, not the folder. If you don't keep this in mind, you can easily be misled into thinking your view settings didn't "take".
Thanks for that. I have tried for years to accurately explain the .DS_Store functionality and you just gave me the way to do it.
