Windows 7 - Navigation pane frustrations?

I'm trying to make it so that Navigation pane would be disabled whenever I open folder shortcuts, such as music, documents, pictures, but I want to keep it enabled when I got to My computer or Windows explorer. However it seems that its either enabled or disabled for all folders. Any way to fix that?

Also, is there anyway to make windows remember each folders individual settings? It seems whenever I open a folder, and resize it, any other folder will open exactly the same size as the previous open folder. I believe even Windows XP had an option to remember folder settings.

This excelent feature we had in XP, was taken out of 7.
In point of fact, the more one uses Windows Explorer the more I hate it.

So far no fix but there are a couple of apps out there that will lock size and position of any window when its re opened.
The best is Zmover .

Is there any way to hide the Navigation pane so I can recover the real estate it takes up on my screen when I don't need it? I tried to resize it, but it still shows.

Please disregard my last post. Found it under layout. Thanks