Change default view style in OS X Finder

When opening a folder in OS X Finder, icon view is the default view style. Unless is has been manually changed through the Finder toolbar. You can change the default view style with the following defaults write command:

defaults write com.apple.Finder FXPreferredViewStyle type

Change ‘type’ at the end the command with one of the following choices:

Flwv ▸ Cover Flow View
Nlsv ▸ List View
clmv ▸ Column View
icnv ▸ Icon View

For example, to always use the column view, the defaults command would be as follows:

defaults write com.apple.Finder FXPreferredViewStyle clmv

Restart Finder for changes to take effect:

killall Finder

Restore to default setting with:

defaults write com.apple.Finder FXPreferredViewStyle icnv