Incorrect sort order in File Open/Save dialogues

Hi all,

this is driving me nuts. For the past few weeks, my WinXP system
insists on showing all Open/Save dialogs (for non-Office apps) in
reverse sort order, i.e. List mode, files first (instead of folders)
and descending alphabetical order.

I've already seen a number of proposed solutions in the newsgroups,
including this:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_opensaveorder.htm
and this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229070

but neither helps - the default sort order remains wrong.

Any other ideas?
TIA,

--
Kristofer