Windows hijacking field list for folders with specific file types

[deepblackmagic]

OK, The slow and painful transition to XP from good ol 2k has been one headache after another. For me its simply a user interface issue. XP is just overall slower, and its "smart" features drive me to insanity. I figure ill try to tackle one irritation at a time though, which brings me to my problem:

Whenever I'm browsing a regular folder, and i want to sort by various criteria, I have always used the arrange icons by sub menu via right clicking anywhere. In XP the fields in that menu CHANGE based on the file types it sees in that folder. Eg: if there happens to be a MP3 file in the folder, it no longer allows me to sort by creation or modification date etc. but asks me to sort by artist name, album, or 20 other equally useless options. The core problem is that the OS is trying to be "smart" which is seriously decreasing its usefulness. I need it to be dumb and do as its always has, with no reguard for content.

The halfassed solution im currnetly using: I have to change the view from List (GOOD) to detailed (BAD) and manually goto the top bar and remove the fields i dont care about, and hunt down the one i do. Furthermore it tends to "forget" from time to time what fields i have, and the whole process has to start over.

In reality i would like a magic button that disables any "smart" or "predictive" functionality, but im not going to hold my breath for that. I would however settle for a way, via a registry key i could start chopping out, or some hidden media specific option to speed my browsing searching and sorting right along. Im not sure if WMP9 is to blame for adding this functionality or not, however it seems like it doesnt want to go away either, because every time i uninstalled it, i would open any media file (reguardless of auctual file association) and pop up its automated installer to start harassing me again.

Thanks for your time. Any ideas would be appreciated.