To find documents and photos easily I often want to sort by the date I last opened them and in the drop down menu for it it's not there by default so I have to go in and tick it then go back in to do it. Sometimes this option stays but with most of it being on an external drive the option gets dropped and I have to do it all over again. I've put up with it for years but is there a way of making it a default option regardless what file I'm in? There must be a way even if it means fiddling with the registry somewhere.

If I'm right, then if you set the view up for a particular folder how you want it (i.e. with the access date shown but sorted however you like), then going to Tools, Options, View, Apply to Folders (followed by Reset Folders) then this should make it the default view for everything. Note that this will reset the different views you get for things like the Pictures/Videos libraries.