How do I get the File Save or File Open dialogs to show details by default?

Leo, you might appreciate this review of a whole bunch of programs that do exactly this:
http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/DialogExtenders/index.html

one of our favorites (Filebox Extender) has just become freeware with the announcement that it won't work on Windows Vista.

-mouser

Thanks for the recommendation to use Filebox Extender - works like a charm.

You might want to look at this KB article from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229070

Though this is written for Windows 98, the same procedure works in Windows XP. Essentially, open an explorer windows, navigate to c:, choose View->Details from menubar, click on the Name column to sort the way you want, hold down the control key and click the close button (with the control key held down). Now the common open/save file dialog will be sorted by name. The KB article says to reboot right away, but in XP it seems to have an immediate effect.

Mouse, thanks for the idea, was screwing me up but ROYALLY for the last 6 months.

Jim, thanks for the confirmation, 2 guys/gals saying it is OK is a decent sign. For me it works perfectly on XP Pro sp2 and on 2003 server RC2. My amazement is that
a)MS haven't bought it - Perhaps they have their own "new features" in Vista to do something similar but (par for the course) vastly inferior. They never seem to understand the words "flexible" OR "intutitive" OR "friendly", just "This is the product, this is what it does, no, we don't care a damn about what it doesn't do, go see your lawyer and show him/her our EULA". Sigh!

All I wanted was a simple way to set the open/save to "details" so I can see files sizes and scroll down instead of sideways. Making the dialogue box bigger (150% on width. 125% on height is a sheer, but wonderful bonus if you need long file names which I like. Also I can turn off the features I don't want like favorites menu at home (many users, not a good idea) etc etc. Beautiful program, beautifully done.

Stable as a rock, and FREE, but still (as a I speak) being updated and bugfixed. One downside, it uses 12 Mb of RAM, but then what program doesn't these days.
Thank you Hyperionics and Mouse and Jim.

It seems most of the best Dialog Extenders won't work with Vista. What a shame !. With Vista coming pre-installed in most computers, there's a field wide open for the authors to update their software to cater to a need here. File-Ex (www.file-ex.com) is one of those that does the job exceedingly well with a very intuitive interface; but right now, it does not work very well with Vista.

I changed my defaults for non-Microsoft applications so I know that it can be done. The problem is that I don't know how I did it and I can't get it back. Every time I open something the Open dialog box appears in List View sorted by date modified in descending order.

I am wasting so much time. It drives me nuts!

Seriously,
Jim had it right,
To get the file open dialog to show details the nex time: select details in the file open dialog and hold control key when clicking open. Works in Vista Business.

Thanks, never would have thought of it! BTW, CTRL + Close works on Vista Ultimate too.

Leo, I think it is not the situation.
When you will SAVE or SAVE AS a file in the HD, don't matter from where it comes or how explorer is configured, there are never details.
How to set the details by default?
For one, open the notepad, and get to save the text.
The dialog box never shows details. How to set it?
(the dialog boxes, not the explorer)