Windows and Folder Thumbnails (Or lack there of)

New to the forum so I'll write my "Comment" in two ways.

(Skip if you hate emotional back-story)Long Version:
I've used XP for going on years now and switched to Vista about 9 months ago. First thing I had to do was remake all my folder thumbnails. I'm a real lover of pictures, I really am. I usually make a individual folder per artist, put the artist's face as the thumbnail, and stuff as much of their works as I can get my hands on into said folder. In XP this was nice and easy, I had the face take up the whole folder and it was easy to remember each person. With Vista it got annoying as my images were placed at a slant and when they were cached they often got lost and started to migrate to other folder (And when you have a public computer with password protected folders for your non-worksafe artists that migrate to your safe folders and replace thumbnails THIS CAN BECOME A REAL PROBLEM). For Windows 7 though I'm stuck...I really am. Somehow or another my folders now hate me and choose to disobeadiantly choose their own thumbnails, at a slanted angle, with 2 or so images stacked together, change when new images are added, and it has made it really hard to see and remember my folders now. Why was such a wonderful feature eliminated to such an extent that it now feels in the way to have the folder not be represented by a single image?

(Read if you want to get to the point)Short Version:
I have many picture folders and want to display the artists of said folders in the thumbnail but do not know of a way to do so.

(*After Muddling Around) I found the way to put the customize tab on my folder but they are still being belligerent and choose not to use the picture I assign to them and instead just continue to use their own.
Basically, I choose a picture to assign, click apply/ok, exit properties and the image doesn't change.

(**Nevermind) Another user posted a topic about this, lo and behold he got a few answers.
Trouble with folder thumbnails/customization (HELP!)

After trying everything in his topic I've still got folders without proper Thumbnails.

CasualPaper said:

(*After Muddling Around) I found the way to put the customize tab on my folder but they are still being belligerent and choose not to use the picture I assign to them and instead just continue to use their own.
Basically, I choose a picture to assign, click apply/ok, exit properties and the image doesn't change.

Not working here either.