Is there anyway to make everything in the Finder menu shown as a list? I know there is three different options (list, columns, icons), but it only changes the folder you selected, not all.
Open a finder window, configure it to the mode you want, then choose View Options from the View menu, set any remaining options, and select all windows at the top.
But I've noticed it's a little buggy / has a strange definition of "all," so sometimes there are certain folders wandering around with a different setting than everything else....