Xp Home Ed. View Menu

[Bhappy1941]

When using MY COMPURTER or WINDOWS EXPLORER; I like to view the contents of each as a LIST. No matter how many times I go to VIEW MENU; click on LIST; then go to TOOLS MENU; Click on FOLDER OPTIONS; Click on VIEW TAB; and Click on APPLY TO ALL FOLDER Button; the next time I open MY COMPUTER or WINDOWS EXPLORER; the contents always appear as ICONS, not as LIST. Any idea(s) as to how to correct this so the contents of MY COMPUTER and WINDOWS EXPLORER will appear as a LIST and not ICONS?
Viewing contents of MY COMPUTER and WINDOWS EXPLORER as LIST has always worked great until about 2 weeks ago. Am using XP Home with 2nd SP Installed.