Explorer: common tasks instead of tree in folder bar

No offense Yuri, but I don't think you've really read my posting. The 'solution' you describe is precisely what I described myself.

And I said:

It already showed 'explore', which is correct.

and

I've never seen this behaviour before (I've always had folders by default)

I may be a coincidence though, and something else may have messed with the settings.