The short version: Your suggestion replacing the .plist was the ONLY fix that finally did the trick, so thank you very much !
The somewhat longer version: Have been using Macs since 1988 and always used icon view keeping the folders organized "the way I like it"
Also, still using Mavericks (an update would make several applications incompatible with newer versions of the OS).
Recently, a somewhat weird "crash" forced me to re-install the OS. After a lengthy phone call with an Apple senior advisor, re-installed 10.9.5 and backed up the rest from the most recent Time Machine. So far so good, not much data lost (In addition to Time Machine, I also have important backups on external HDs....just in case).
But, could not get back my original Icon (folder) size and organization (layout). This was only the case for the internal HD (system disk). The external HDs were as before.
I would arrange my folders the old way and set icon size, spacing, text size and background color with "View Options"
However, after a Restart or Shut Down then Boot-up, the window (internal HD view) would revert back to a smaller size and the icon size and text would be off with the icons arranged in a arbitrary (?) order.
Tried everything; reset the PRAM, the SMC, tried different settings in View Options with Default or not. Same result; Nothing worked. Turned out, the sub-folder were also be messed up; some larger and some smaller.
Searched all over the web, for solutions and suggestions but found very little useful/helpful information.
(I was also at apple, but missed your fix on Page 2, the first time)
Even tried 3rd party software (Stay 1.2.4 for 10.9.5), but it did nothing, or at least not what I wanted it to do.
This was slowly driving me crazy, but I was determined to get it back to the "old way", so back to Mac Forums.
Found your suggestions.....tried it....and voila it worked !
Now everything is back to "Normal" at least for now, so thanks again.
One Question: I noticed that in addition to the com.apple.finder.plist that was replaced, I saw some (4) other .finder.plist files in the Preference folder. They would all have different combinations of upper and lower case letters plus a number at the end, for example: com.apple.finder.plist.nSjtF8R.
Are these preference files supposed to be there or do they just mess up certain finder (other) settings?
JM