Question : how to disable the folder toolbar

For the last two days ... and i don't know why ? ... everytime i open a folder i get a folder toolbar (explorer mode) on the left hand side of the screen. This is new and i don't know what has happened to cause this as i have not made any changes in the last few days except for my active desktop.
I can't stand this folder explorer showing everytime i open a folder or change folders and i want it gone.
I have tried to close it ... but it comes back
I have removed the "Folder" button from the toolbar customize option.
I have restored the defaults for folders.
what else can i do ?
thanks

Answer : how to disable the folder toolbar

My mail server was down for awhile. sorry.

I think is a registry thing.
Here is how my Folder entry looks. When you right click a folder, you have 2 options: Open (default) and Explore. With Explore, it the folders also appear at left. Maybe the two got mixed up (maybe you fooled around with the registry, or is just this dum Windows :)
I discovered a stupid thing in regedit: i saved the hall Folder entry, and at the Command, in Regedit it shows (for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\explore\command):

%SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe /e,/idlist,%I,%L

and in the saved .reg:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\explore\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
  00,5c,00,45,00,78,00,70,00,6c,00,6f,00,72,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,\
  65,00,20,00,2f,00,65,00,2c,00,2f,00,69,00,64,00,6c,00,69,00,73,00,74,00,2c,\
  00,25,00,49,00,2c,00,25,00,4c,00,00,00

Stupid, huh? That's why for this one just use Regedit, not .reg files, to be sure. So anyway, just look at
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\explore\ddeexec
and make sure (Default) looks like this:
[ExploreFolder(\"%l\", %I, %S)]
and at
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\ddeexec
it shuld be
[ViewFolder(\"%l\", %I, %S)]

If that looks ok, look here too:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\explore\command
%SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe /e,/idlist,%I,%L
and
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\command
%SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe /idlist,%I,%L

This is how it looks in regedit on my comp. Save it, log off/back on and see the changes. Tell me how it went.